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WHIRL AROUND 



THE WORLD 



By 
MINNIE TISING NORFLEET 

A Missouri Girl 



Printed By 
The Versailles Statesman 
Versailles, Mo. 

September, 1918 






Ml !7 !9I9 



ICI.A5155S3 



THE WORLD. 



THE TRIP OUT. 

Surely the one gratification of mankind's lifetime is 
that of circling the globe — tho considering the number of 
peoples who inhabit this sphere, how few avail themselves 
of the opportunity ! 

Having always dwelt inland, with domicile near the 
"Father-of- Waters," I was seized with this longing to know 
"what's on the other side," terminating in a whirl around 
the world by a Missouri girl, who will attempt to disclose 
to those who have never been, and review those who have 
been, a summarj?^ of seven months of strange customs and 
costumes on foreign lands and seas with dashes of life on a 
cruising ship intermingling. 

Next to sitting out well-earned, long, restful days on 
the sea (which is appreciated only by the active), is experic- 
ing the delightful sensation of embarking and disembark- 
ing from a great ocean liner, and to me one of the chief 
features was our approach to, and departure from harbour, 
each one different more interesting, and seemingly surpass- 
ing the other — as the principal ports of all the nations round 
the world are many and varied. 

After days of sailing — often more than a week — with- 
out even a dent on the deadline where sea and sky meet. 



V 



4 WHIRL AROUND THE WORLD. 

suddenly a dark object would appear on the horizon far 
away, and on drawing nearer, proved to be land — or 
"LAND," as our party would all shout, on becoming cogniz- 
ant of the fact — and this land would develop into promon- 
tories or foothills or mountains and on rounding sahie, a 
beautiful panorama unfolds revealing a tranquil harbour, 
pacified by long lengths of breakwater topt off and sur- 
rounded by some one of the great world-wide ports which 
is the gateway or main artery, or representative bespeaking 
the nation on whose coast it abides. 

Directly the ship ceases throbbing, leaving you with 
that feeling of having waded in the surf against an ocean 
wave, when, after having spent itself, suddenly leaves you 
without notice. 

We rush to the side of the vessel and look forward to 
see a rope ladder dropt over the prow of the liner and the 
pilot for the port, who has come out in a small boat to meet 
us, comes on board, takes the helm and directs our ship 
thru the channel, inside the breakwater — for it must be re- 
membered that our ship's pilot is steerer of the deep sea 
only, and unacquainted with entrance channels to foreign 
ports — all sea-going vessels being escorted into the harbour 
and out to deep sea by the port's pilot, and our ship never 
enters nor leaves a port before six o'clock in the morning or 
after six in the evening. 

After being steered cautiously thru a long line of buoys 
of various inventions, which often are bell-buoys stationed 
at certain distances, this precursor of disaster consisting of 
a large bell hung stiffly from the top of the inside of a 
cage that sits on top of an anchored floating platform and, 
responding to the actions of the waves tolls out its doleful 
message of warning of shallow sea or hidden obstacles, to 
sea-going vessels, we find ourselves in the harbour proper 
and having surrendered all energy — as a tired sea-gull 
settles down on the water, a tug pulls us by a long rope from 
the prow, another from the stern, and a few jabs in the 
side from another, we are squared around in our allotted 
space, anchored, and settled for the night and all is quiet. 



THE TRIP OUT. 5 

The next morning the ship's stairway is unfolded and 
let down on the outside of the vessel by huge pulleys sus- 
pended from a derrick on the top deck, to the water below 
where it forms a platform, and we go down fifty steps on 
the outside of this- big black steel hull, angling past port- 
holes on the various decks to the platform below and step 
across to tenders or other watercraft that has motored or 
paddled or steamed alongside to take us off to shore, and 
lucky is the passenger who escapes with only an artificial 
scraped off her hat or crown dented in, or even a dent in the 
head — as was the case with one man on this trip, which 
sent the blood streaming down his face from coming in con- 
tact with the low iron beams above of this hobbling foreign 
passenger dispenser which has come to take us from the 
steamer to shore. 

For acquainting ourselves with the different countries 
and sights while on shore, we take the various facilities of- 
fered in the way of conveyances which are unique — often 
grotesque but always interesting, and, accompanied with 
their native manipulator, almost held us spellbound upon 
first appearance — as we began with the ''darlingest of all" 
foreign transporting mediums — the ricksha of Japan, or 
jinrickisha, as we are prone to call it before visiting its 
home, (jin, meaning man, riki for power, 'and sha for car- 
riage), denoting man-power-carriage. In Burma, we had 
the ghurries — a kind of red-painted dry-goods box with 
wooden shutters, seats facing, heavy wood roof, claiming 
sunstroke prevention — a heavy clumsy four-wheeled vehicle 
drawn by a scrubby horse while the dark colored Burmese 
sits high above us on the outside, popping a big whip with 
a long lash urging his horse with much loud whooping as 
we rumbled along over the roads with the lunibersome 
wheels making a terrible sound, and tho it was very hot and 
dusty, I enjoyed it, because I had started out to see the 
other side of the world in its every-day garb, and submit to 
whatever it afforded. 

Quite the most humorous spectacle, was the diminutive 
"dos-a-dos" (which rrieans back-to-back) of Java brought 



g WHIRL AK.OUKD THE WORLD. • 

up for our disposal which is merely a platform with wide 
bench in center with no back, where the small dark Javanese 
sat facing the front while we (two of us) sat on the same 
bench facing the back which was all open, and our feet 
dangling down. This is a two-wheeled conveyance with a 
square of oilcloth stretched on an iron frame above sup- 
posing to keep the scorching rays of the tropical sun from, 
withering its occupants-^but donesn't — and we are jerked 
along at an alarming rate and discomfort by a tiny pony, 
that looked very like the weight of we three would over- 
balance its weight and throw it up off its feet, but we were 
assured these little native ponies were quite tuff and safe. 

In Gibralter, we drove in "recklas." This singular na- 
tive conveyance looks like a four-poster bedstead with a 
canopy stretched across the top and white muslin curtains 
draped back to each post, and is equipt with two seats fac- 
ing each other, also covered in white. We found these very 
comfortable, also attractive in their quaintness. The driver 
— either Moroccan, Algerian or Spanish, sat out in front and 
drove the inferior pair of small horses. 

Only in Egypt did we have beautiful carriage horses, 
presumably because of proximity to Arabia, the home of fine 
horses and fearless horsemen. 

After viewing the sights on shore for days, appealing 
as our floating home was, we would gaze longingly at the 
receding city and harbour, and dwell upon the habits and 
customs of a nation new to us, as we draw out upon the 
broad sea, departing from one pert only to be ushered into 
another equally as remarkable. 

A trip around the world is certainly to be coveted. 

Right out of the continuous magnetic grip of winter in 
the Mississippi Valley, I took the most southerly route to 
go East by way of the west, and after three days riding over 
our own great desert waste and the Salton Sea, I arrived 
in the most beautiful land our States can boast of — that 
of Southern California, where the roses bloom always, and 
their alluring odor mingles with the palm, pepper, eucalyptus 
and orange brought out by the sea breezes wafted in from 



1 



THE TRIP OUT. 




g WHIRL AROUND THE WOELO. 

the shore where bathers are indulging in the surf, and the 
waves run up a pea-nut strewn beach, and the cry of "span- 
ish-tamales" and "clam-chowder" vie with the booming of 
the breakers and miriads of automobiles spinning over the 
splendid roads. 

I visited the gardens at Pasadena, and took passage up 
the coast to San FranciscoV the port of my departure, which 
is a bunch of wind and fog, tho has most proved a phenix 
in blotting out the black area made by the great fire follow- 
ing the eathquake of a few years back. I tagged my trunks 
and baggage for their long journey, and forwarded them to 
meet the steamer at the pier, where I followed after spend- 
ing a most delightful evening with friends who, after the 
excellent evening dinner accompanied me to the pier and on 
board v/here I was to remain during the night as the vessel 
was to sail at an early hour the next morning. I located my 
room, and together we began the scrutiny of this big ship 
that was to be my home for the next months. 

'Twas dressed in its best. 

Electric lighted from stem to stern, and all reflecting 
and twinkling in the dark water below which was the only 
thing that seemed under control. Within,, all was confusion 
— passengers locating rooms — uniformed stewards hurrying 
thru the long hallways with baggage and messages — visitors 
dining and wining — friends bidding farewells — flower ex- 
changing — weeping and laughter lasting late in the night, 
then all settled down and we had nothing more menacing to 
a night's rest than the heavy trot of draft horses on the 
pier, bringing big loads of provisions for the ship, such as 
cases of oranges, lemons, grape-fruit, enuf ice cream to last 
half way round the world, also Washington Red apples for 
the same, and of a most delicious flavor, of canned California 
fruits of the cream-of-perfection kind, coils of big rope and 
little rope, flowers for the tables, trunks tumbled into the 
big hold below the passenger decks, and coal and ice in the 
bunkers far below. 

This went on all night. 



THE TRIP OUT. 9 

Next morning everybody was on deck early for we 
were to sail at nine. 

Every available inch of space on the wharf was taken 
up ynth San Francisco spectators who had come down to see 
us off and wave a last adieu and to view the big liner that 
was starting on its fourth voyage around the world — the 
"Cleveland," which now must be, from the greetings it drew 
forth from all the ports along the line, a world-wide known 
ship. 

And she looked every inch of her deserving popularity 
v/ith her two large smoking funnels, about the size of our 
big country silos, towering above the five passenger decks, 
the topmost one standing five stories above the water 
line, while the whole vessel was more than six hundred 
feet long. 

As her moorings were loosed, ropes thrown off, long 
streams of confetti unfurled from the top deck conveying 
written card messages of the last thot to friends on the 
pier below, the ship's band wailing "Farewell, My Native 
Shore," we slowly drew back from the slip, turning round, 
and, 'mid cheers and- shouts and whistles and salutes of 
other craft in the bay, we headed for the Golden Gate across 
the bay. 

After this exciting scene, finding myself alone on the 
deck I turned inward to observe my companions for the 
ensuing months. Some were old, others young, some were 
fat, lean, thick and thin, long and short, homely and hand- 
some, artists, musicians, doctors, capitalists, millionaires 
and journalists, poets, and widows, of which there were on 
board fifty-seven and became known as "Heinz's 57 Va- 
rieties." 

I directed the deck steward to place my deck chair (for 
which I surrendered three dollars for the voyage) in a 
sheltered nook, wrapt my new plaid steamer rug around me, 
(altho you can rent a rug of the ship's company for two dol- 
lars for the entire voyage, there's some importance attached 
to private ownership), and had just settled back to wonder 
at the great waste of water and to review the enthusiasm 



10 



WHIKL AROUND THE WORLD. 



01 boarding a steamer for unknown parts of the world, leav- 
ing out all thot of peril or disaster at the hands of the deep 
sea or the dark nations on winding off this twenty-eight 
thousand miles of prolonged travel, and we had no more 
than crossed the bar when I saw the ship wasn't running 
steady — something appeared to be wrong. I rose and looked 
over the railing, casting a glance at the life boats as a sink- 
ing sensation overtook me, the air becoming oppressive. 

Thinking I might be safer in my cabin, I rushed down 
the stairway and took to my berth where I resolved to stay 
until convinced the ship was under control, and after as- 
surances from the doctor, the nurse, the hostess and my 
room-steward at different times that it was running without 
a hitch, I feebly, very feebly, ventured up on deck where 
was sighted, and we were approaching the Hawaiian Islands, 
and I found we had covered two thousand miles and I had 
lost seven days of fine sailing feverishly wrestling in my 
cabin with the thot of "how long it takes this horrid shiD 
to reach the bottom of the sea and why it doesn't hurry — 
any thing for relief." 



HAWAII ^ 

But on running into the bluest of blue harbours and 
dropping anchor for the time, and the engines below having 
ceased throbbing, I forgot my misery of the past week and 
joined hands with some others that had spent their time in 
the same way, and, braced up by the pure and balmy sea 
breeze (for we had dropt seventeen degrees since leaving 
San Francisco, which would mean as far south as Old Mex- 
ico City in America), we were attracted by a boat load of 
Hawaiian young men and women with heaps of fresh flowers 
who had come out to meet us in a motor boat and drew up 
along side our ship, coming on board, placed a lei, (pro- 
nounced lay-e) which is a wreath, around each passenger's 
neck — their token of friendship and welcome. 

'Twas a beautiful greeting from our dark brothers and 
sisters who dwell in the middle of the big Pacific on a few 
little islands, eight in number, whose whole area is not as 
great as that of New Jersey'. 

I looked across at the green velvety covering of the 
main island, Oahua, sloping from the edge of the blue bay 
backward to the top of the mountains — for these are of 
volcanic origin — with Honolulu, the one port nestling in a 
crescent at the foot with Diamond Head to the right, the 
Punch Bowl — looking like a huge punch bowl sure enuf — 
half way up the mountain side. 

We steamed up to the dock and tied up. 

The wharf was full of peoples of all nations who had 
come down to see this big steamer full of pleasure seekers 
sailing round the world — and they looked a promiscuous 
gathering, from most all parts of the globe, adding what 
was lacking when we drew in and joined them. 

The Hawaiians are large, strongly built people with 
brown skins, more often than 2iot freckled with darker 
brown splotches and thru all this, some are quite handsome. 



][2 WHIRL AROUND THE WORLD. 

with dark brown appealing eyes, and they impress one as 
of idyllic temperament which certainly finds encouragement 
in the isolation of this tropical flower-beladened palmy and 
balmy isle. 

I meditated on Ex-queen Liliokalani's conception of her 
surrender of this 'Taradise-of-the-Pacific," and of her de- 
spair of twenty years ago on being deposed at the hands of 
our own government and forced to become our subject, and 
I recall the little plaintive song of her own composition 
which the dark natives sang upon our departure from port, 
our band taking it up and rendering it often to us after- 
wards thruout the voyage — that of "Alohe Ohe," translated, 
the bewailing 

"Farewell to thee, farewell to thee, Thou charming one 

Who dwells among the bowers, 
Qne fond embrace before we now depart 
Until we meet again," 

immediately transforms us into a studious attitude, and our 
thots at once revert to the beautiful lonely isles who so 
courageously holds fort in the broad sea in a position no 
other land on the globe boasts — that of being two thousand 
miles distant from any other land. 

After saluting our new-made dusky friends and a gen- 
erous scrutiny of one by the other, the gang plank was 
pushed out from the upper deck of our steamer, across to 
the upper story of the big government warehouse and we 
filed down stairs and out thru long lines of these receiving 
peoples, dressed in their h^li.-ay attire carrying sun-shades 
on February 12. 

Open electric street cars were at the wharf to meet us 
and right glad I was to implant my languid personage on 
the front seat and flirt with the delightfully perfumed 
breezes as we trailed thru the avenues of the city banked 
on either side with bowers, the aroma of all the different 
tropical plants extracted by the heat of the sun, the blend 
permeating the whole air having the effect little short of a 
narcotic. 



HAWAII. 



13 



One is astonished at the progress made, the mammoth 
government buildings and substantial business blocks, and 
the fine big department stores all airy with summer goods 
•^ — for they need no other kind, there being no extreme sea- 
sons in this flowery sea-encircled isle. 

The street car system is splendid and the pride of the 
natives who have had all this modern modes and means 
thrust upon them at the instigation of "Uncle Sam." 

The Hawaiian woman's style of dress seemed to be 
full-flowing robes like a mother hubbard sprung to bell 
shape with, great wide ruffle at the lower edge dragging on 
the ground and swaying with the swinging walk of the 
large brown women. 

We went out to the rice fields all floating in water, 
past banana plantations around the slopes to the mountains, 
and to the mud-duck ponds where that propagation is en- 
larging, then to the coconut plantation of a thousand trees, 
with their long gaunt, naked bodies reaching up to an un- 
called for height, topt off with great sprangling palm-like 
leaves that presented the appearance of a wrecked feather 
duster. 

Not a ray of sun reached the earth, so dense was the 
shade from the mingling of these leaves above, round which 
the coconuts cluster in their big fibre, often too large to gcr- 
in a six-quart spat bucket, and a barrel of them to a tree. 
In some places a windstorm has blown these trees while 
young causing them to grow at a curving angle making a 
rainbow sweep to their allotted height and we have seen 
many little brown ratives, perfectly nude, all doubled up, 
sitting half way up to the top of these long curving trees, 
looking, at a distance for all the world like our ancestors. 

Of all the grow Jig palms around the world, the Royal 
Palm of Hawaii and the Traveler's Palm of Ceybn are the 
most spectacluar. 

Hawaii is the home of the Royal and there are whole 
avenues outlined with their white-ringed majestic trunks 
standing like a line of great white columns topt off with 



]^4 WHIRL AROUND THE WORLD. 

their feathery leaves — some one asked if they were 
whitewashed. 

I noticed most all the handsome homes had long drive- 
ways guarded on either side with these as sentinels — the 
extreme whiteness of their huge bodies brought out in the 
background of vivid green. 

One of the chief features and an original acquirement 
of this city of Honolulu is, the hedges of hibiscus outlining 
yards and lengths of streets, growing high, sometimes to 
height of trees, crowded with thick bushy leaves and large 
red blossoms making a picturesque wall, or shield and a 
floral art much indulged in. 

Then, again there are long stone walls, old walls, com- 
pletely covered and overhanging vv^ith the cherished (in our 
states) night-blooming cerous, v/hich they say is a revela- 
tion when in blossom, and I am satisfied it is. 

The poinsettas here are the largest in the ^yorld. I sav/ 
some fine specimens in Audubon Park in New Orleans a fev/ 
years ago, but not so extreme as here — the big crimson blos- 
coms measuring fourteen inches. 

There are many princely residences, the favored white 
finish of them shining like alabaster thru the tropical 
foliages. 

The bungalows are a display of "arts and craft" in their 
novel architecture all smothered in flowers. Of course, 
there are shacks for the less ambitious and less fortunate 
same as found all over the world, but these are on the out- 
skirts and along the shores, but even these savor of pic- 
turesqueness when nestling under a clump of the tall coco- 
nut trees, tho the dirt floor and surrounding yard is patted 
down almost to concrete by the restless bare feet of the 
brown habitants. 

The city boasts some beautiful hotels with all sorts of 
odd conceits in porches which seems to be the necessary'' 
point in the construction of all buildings in this sunny clime 
— just a bunch of circular balconies, galleries and columnB 
which are well suited to their location up the mountain 
slopes overlooking the blue bay, and these all banked with 



15 



niany-hued flowers, where the guests while the hours away 
in the enchanted air that is carried along by the aromatic 
zephyrs, and list to the hum of the mysterious whispers of 
the palms. 

We drove thru the Japanese and Chinese quarters of 
the city, for Honolulu is a lengthy port extending along the 
shore nine miles, and a mile back up to the mountain sides, 
claiming a population of 54,000. 

These Asiatics act in the capacity of servants for the 
people from the States, and quite chic the little maid looks 
as she short-steps around in her matting shoes and brilliant 
kimona with stiff black hair, as she ' served to myself and 
steamer companion (who is a club woman of Denver), in 
the home of a former missionary's wife who kindly invited 
us, while walking on the beach, to come in and enjoy the 
cool shade of her piazza which was completely enveloped in 
flowers and plants, and over all, high above swayed the tall 
cocopalms, their long leaves playing at fencing with each 
other. 

We took luncheon at the big beach hotel, the "Moana" 
(meaning "fish") fronting on Waikiki Beach which is about 
three miles up the shore from the port docks. The banquet 
room or dining hall is of mammoth area, all glass balconied 
and running out over the beach where the waves rolled in 
and lapped the piling underneath. The bathers entertained 
us with their antics in the surf near by. At the close of 
this luncheona large single specimen pineapple was served 
to each guest, slightly scooped out and filled with sherbet, 
'twas of the most delicious sort which is found only in the 
Hawaiias, this being the home of the largest pineapple can- 
nery in the world. 

I strolled along the beach and out on the pier watching 
the alert diving and riding of the surf on long light boards 
by the almost nude natives who are at home in the water 
whose warm temperature and azure blue, without doubt, is 
inviting. The piscatorial display, or aquarium containing 
specimens of the fishes that abound in the Hiawaiian 
waters, is a spectacle no lover of the curious should fail 



16 



WHIRL AROUND THE WORLD. 



to SC3. After going thru this ever-worming exhibition, I 
thot of the many peoples who do not know such strange 
fishes exist — that such wonderful pictures are really alive, 
breathing and living in the sea. 

Raving sailed over the Marine Gardens at Catalina 
Island just off the Pacific coast, in the glass-bottom boats, 
and observed these submarine inhabitants darting here and 
there among the aquatic plants, I now beheld their bril- 
liant colorings at close range and noted the artistic pencil- 
ing of the black and gold of these queerly formed but 
sweepingly graceful little sea dwellers — a wondrous collec- 
tion by our island colony, of odd and rare freaks produced 
by the salt sea. 

A great many Americans are engaged in various busi- 
ness here while the natives profit and expand their oppor- 
tunities by the presence and under the tutorship of the 
peoples of our states. 

The receipts of the many sugar plantations runs into 
wondrous figures, their only evil being the drouth, and that 
only where irrigation is not provided, which is lacking 
mostly on the islands outlying ; but this isle of Oahu, from 
which all the modern propagations radiate from Honolulu, 
the Capitol and disseminator — the seat of tryouts — is well* 
equipt with all irrigation adaptations, thereby splendid 
yields from the moist fields. 

Oriental and occidental trade converging at this port 
of Honolulu, imparts a commercial hustle to the every day 
life of the city — not even counting the sugar traffic. 

This Trans-Pacific exchange has brought the old Sand- 
v^^ich Islands into prominence and they make an interesting 
subject to study, with their melee of races, each with im- 
ported ideas. 

'Twas in the summer of 1898 that annexation of this 
"Kingdom of the Hawaiian Islands" was effected with our 
States, being made a territory within the next two years, 
and soon the trolley cars were running thru the seaport 
city then was acquired the most important achievement of 
all — the laying of the Pacific cable five years after, bring- 



HAWAII. 



17 



ing the islands in dose touch with the lands across the 
sea, where with railways on two of the islands, and steam- 
ship facilities enlarging, as a whole, it makes a pleasant 
break for the traveller, in the long journey over the seem- 
ingly dreary wastes of water. 

One is not in port long until seized with a desire to 
go up in the fresh green mountains. 

Of a half dozen routes, the Pali road is the more in- 
teresting, as it runs thru — all the way ascending — Nuuanu 
Valley, about six miles from Honolulu, to a great precipice 
where it turns, descending along the side of the cliff, where 
a grand sweep of verdure, oean and city is flashed before 
you. 

Along this route is the Nuuanu cemetery, and beyond 
is the royal mausoleum, where yet is received the bodj^ of 
some one of the former ruling families. 

Off to one side are Kpaena Falls, gushing a white 
spray over a rocky bridge, this being the Nuuanu river's 
source. 

Up here, also, at this exalted height, are the flower 
gardens of the natives, where their welfare depends upon 
the cultivation of brilliant bloomers which they weave into 
leis, or wreaths and bring down to the principal thorofare 
and solicit trade. Their most remunerative days are on the 
departure of mail steamers, and the buyer will find himself 
more interested in the pathetic appeal of the natives' dark 
eyes than in the vivid hues of the asters, jessamine, roses, 
ginger and carnations so deftly woven together. 

Not far from this flower colony, is the Electric Station 
and Reservoir, where the Nuuanu mountain stream sup- 
plies the water to operate the dynamo which sends the cur- 
rent into the city below. 

The roads are well cared for, and the immaculate 
whiteness of the buildings, along with many original ideas 
wrought out up here in the little country retreats among 
the wild vegetation and mountain cascades, has a certain 
freshness about it that charms the traveller. 



18 



WHIRL AROUND THE WORLD. 



Pali, is the name of the mountain peak. Luakaha, is 
where the millionaire Cook's country villa is situated, to 
one side of Nuuanu valley — an ideal spot. 

One can note that all these Hawaiian names have a 
musical ring- if properly pronounced. In fact, their lan- 
guage is said to be sweeter than the Italian language. All 
of their words are made up out of an alphabet of fourteen 
letters. ■ ' 

However, the language, the scenery is the all import- 
ant, and difficult it is to determine which is the more pre- 
ferred — the enchantment of the unspoiled mountain wilder- 
ness with unobstructed sea view, or in the lower altitude 
along the beach with the blue oean ever rolling in. 

The whole has been likened to Naples, from its magni- 
ficent site glowing in the sunlight. 

People who travel around the earth for recreation will 
not tolerate any thing short of the best, so the best is al- 
ways brot to our observation, which lessens the irksome- 
ness of self-dependence and conduces largey to the pleasantry 
of the trips on shore. Various agricultural industries were 
brot under our notice— the great and varied tropical vege- 
tation (so delicious to northern people) , blended with vast 
square and rectangular rice patches with silvery water 
w-ays intersecting, then chicken ranches were tried out, 
then on to where mud ducks by the hundreds were paddling 
around over the pond acreage which was devoted to their 
propagation. All this held our undivided interest as iwe 
wished to acquaint ourselves with the every-day perfunc- 
tories of all the nations. 

There are many acres in rice, but the promoters com- 
plain of unprofitable results since the exclusion of the Chin- 
ese by Uncle Sam, and it seems these Asiatics alone can 
handle with profit the rice industry, as they plod up to 
their knees in water and mud alongside their water buff- 
aloes which lazily pull the little plows or rakes thru the 
rice fields. These buffaloes are big strong black, pudgy 
creatures, imported from the Orient for this special work 
as they are at home when half submerged in water or mud. 



HAWAII. ;[9 ^ 

The richest available land has long ago been taken by 
cane planters and has developed many sugar kings. Not far 
out stands the fine home of Claus Spreckles, the one-time 
nation-wide sugar king, now deceased, whose great ramb- 
ling, balconied white mass surrounded by palms and coco 
trees bespeak the footprints of accumulated wealth. 

Honolulu (which means "the sheltered"), bemoans the 
lack of drama and professional musicians, as, being so iso- 
lated, none of the world's best talent makes this point only 
on occasional long stretches when an artist en route to the 
Orient from our mainland has a few hours to spare and 
finds it convenient to play a short engagement at a profit, 
else the population must be content w-'th comedy and the 
picture shows. 

But there are ofi'sets to all things. 

Grand opera, as I have heard it in Covent Garden, 
transfered to the lonely isle of Hawaii v/ould be about as 
impressive as the melody of sincere Hawaiian song floating 
out thru the stalls of Covent Garden, viz: each must carry 
its own setting to rouse the senses to a sympathetic point. 
Without the scent of the ginger and the night-blooming 
cerous stealing thru the hibiscus hedges, without the 
crackle of the palms swaying in the winds blown miles over 
the warm ocean, without the appealing glances of dark 
eyes and the charm of acknowledged solitariness, the Ha- 
waiian melody would be leaden. 

On the nearby isle hangs a pall of gloom. 

Molokai, which has been termed the "isle of sadness" 
is separated from Oahu, the dominating island, by a chan- 
nel near thirty miles in width, where, on a peninsula ex- 
tending far out into the sea on the north, and with a cliff 
or precipice a quarter of a mile high as a barrier, separat- 
ing this five thousand-acre tract with its doomed popula- 
tion, from the other portion of the island, renders it inac- 
cessable to outsiders also beyond escape for insiders, for 
this is the home of the leper. 

All the aflfected of the islands are sent here by the 
government and kept isolated from the community. 



20 



WHIRL AROUND THE WORLD. 



At this time there were near seven hundred lepers in 
this "Forbidden City," tho now decreasing in number thru 
medical science and sympathetic human sacrifice as care- 
takers. 

This great number of victims of the dread disease, are 
in most part, Hawaiians and are permitted to marry other 
lepers, and, we are told there are children of these unions 
who are non-leprous and are taught in schools isolated from 
others. 

How like a death knell it must sound to the condemned 
upon discovery of this creeping disease which appears 
slight at first in inflamed spots on the skin and by degrees 
harden, later developing into tubercles which break and 
discharge, eating into the muscles, the resulting spectacle 
showing blindness, or contorted joints, even to the slough- 
ing oft' of these extremities, loss of voice, faces so mutilated 
as to appear inhuman, till at last the foul ulcers having 
reached some vital organ, the victim, after a piteously slow 
living death spent in ostracism, finally but probably will- 
ingly, gives up the ghost. 

Leprosy has been pronuonceil contagious, and is not 
confined to any one nation or clime, as it prevails in all 
countries round the world, but if one notes the location of 
the different leper colonies, it will be found that they 
are almost all situated on the coasts or islands, which 
strengthens the belief that thru fish-eating the germ is 
carried to the victims by the probability of infected fish. 

I noted a colony out from New Orleans on the Gulf 
coast, during a recent visit there, also one at San Francisco 
on the Pacific coast. I found in Mexico City, that Old Mex- 
ico has large colonies. Massachusetts maintains a leper 
station on an island just off the coast. But the largest 
colony in the world is in 1 he Philippine Islands. Think of a 
city of four thousand le.^ers. 

The estimate is that we have five hundred subjects at 
large in our own states, while a bill is pending in the Sen- 
ate (it having passed the House of Representatives) for an 
appropriation of a quarter of a million for a national lep- 



HAWAII. 21 

rosarium — site not specified. Steps all too tarcl Iv taken in 
recognition of one of the deplorable perils of our nation — 
a disease that is shunned as loathsome, and from which 
nobody is immune now that travel thruout foreign coun- 
tries has become so universal, and the fact existing that 
one is liable to the contagion even in ten or more years 
following exposure. 

Leprosy we have always had with us. 
More than three thousand years ago, Moses, in the 
Pentateuch (Leviticus 13 and 14) purports receiving laws 
pertaining to dealings with leprosy with a prescribed form 
of cleansing of same, and that it is contagious, is borne out 
in that ths condemned shall cry out "unclean, unclean," to 
all approaching;, warning them of the danger of conta":ii- 
nation. 

While segregation is lamentable, (all victims trying 
to conceal their awful plight because of it), yet it is com- 
manded in Leviticus 13:46 where the law decrees "he shall 
dwell alone, and with habitation outside the camp." 

Chinese or Japanese act in the capacity of all house- 
hold servants, in the capitol of this little fleet of islands, 
and clothing expense is light as no heavy garments are re- 
quired and a straw hat is commendable thruout the year 
— tha song of the four s( asons of the mainland is never 
sung in this little land e.isembh lying under the twenty- 
first parallel of latitude. 

In our mainland, the word "imported" stamps all goods 
with importance and brands them exclusive. On going thru 
these island stores we find most all goods are "imported" 
— in fact, almost everything, except sugar and coffee, rice 
and pineapples, no other sod and climate in the world sup- 
ports such pineapples. 

There are some large department stores, but too many 
small ones, that is, in the grocery and fruit line. The 
"storekeeping" maiiia seems to sieze the Asiatics, who can 
conduct these stands on small profits, merely satisfied with 
meager living, which cuts into these departments of a 
larger and profitable trade run on business principles. 



22 WHIRL AROUND THE WORLD. 

There are as many Chinese on the Islands as there are 
Hawaiians and three times as many Japanese as natives. 

These Asiatics support more than twenty Buddhist 
Mission buildings in the islands. They like the islands and 
their labor is much sought in the canefields — for sugar is 
the sustaining crop of the islands, and other industries 
flourish because of the sugar industry. In this mid-ocean 
resting station, one sees the old grass hut nestling near 
the modern cane flume. Here, practical America touches 
colourful Asia. Here in this lone spot in all this area of 
open ocean, the oldest civilization in the world meets the 
newest. Here is a world work-room, for here are gathered 
laborers from all parts of the globe. 

America is at the helm, that is evident. 

These islands are territorial as yet, and are repre- 
sented in our Congress by a delegate elected by the people 
biennially. 

After a most interesting stopover here, in this "Para- 
dise of the Pacific," we go aboard our steamer with sum- 
mary impressions of flowers and palms, cocoanut groves, 
dreamy air, sylvan retreats surely, mixed races — some on 
the -qui vive, others inanimate — picturesque roads, hun- 
dreds of automobiles, beautiful tropical homes lying on the 
mountain side basking in the southern sun, all a new vision 
leaving a lasting impression. 

The next m.orning, the native band of big brown men 
— some of them even handsome in their tropical suits of 
- white — accompanied by some good looking young Hawaiian 
ladies came on our ship and, on the broad deck, with our 
passengers surrounding, gave us a farewell concert — their 
catch plaintive airs mingled with the bewailing strains- of 
the native guitars and the ukuleles affecting we nomads as 
they played and sang. 

After a serving of punch and cigars by the chip's 
brass-buttoned stewards, they departed after rendering 
"Alhoe" that most beautiful and far-reaching of all foreign 
airs, and our own band struck up a response as the ropes 
were thrown off, the gangplank drawn up and we very 



HAWAII. 23 

slowly 'and majectically moved away from the pier amid 
waving and cheering of the crowd that had assembled at 
the wharf and I noticed the almost pathetic expressions on 
their faces as they looked longingly and admirably at our 
big vessel standing high above them and later, as I glanced 
back I thot I heard every one of them resolve to at some 
time make this trip around the world, as they turned in- 
land to their own limited and isolated, the flowery king- 
dom. 

I watched the little nude natives in the bay, diving for 
coins thrown in the water by our passengers. 

They never missed one, the water w^as so clear altho 
thirty-six feet deep at this point, and on coming to the 
surface, would secrete the coin in their mouth and dive for 
another. 

They never trusted the prize in their little light 
canoes, and of course they had no pockets, for the canoes 
tipped over often on plunging out, or some other one might 
get it. 

They dove like frogs when several would dart for the 
same coin, all of them eagerly watching upward for it to 
come overboard. They were pleasant faced grinning little 
fellows looking like seals with their glistening brown wet 
backs. 

I turned from them to outline the island shore which 
was low and rugged, and the waters ran up to breast the 
rocks but were beaten back, only to try it again and again, 
never giving up in despair, with here and there a clump of 
cocoanut trees with ragged fronds swaying listlessly, their 
long gaunt bodies leaning at various angles, the coast winds 
having shaped their destiny at an early stage, with prob- 
ably a thatched roof hut hidden there-under, then swampy 
wastes that looked like a wave would submerge, then signs 
of- pastoral habitation, and more battling of the mid-tropic 
sea lashing the shore, till finally the land grew farther and 
farther away and we were left on the broad ocean with 
never a thing to break the horizon, and for days we plowed 



24 WHIRL AROUND THi; WORI-D. 

those swells with scarcely sighting a ship, for which all 
our great ocean traffic, the ocean is greater than the traf- 
fic, as Japan was our next nation to visit and 'twas an 
eleven-day run. 



25 



ON THE PACIFIC. , 

But during this stretch of sea-wandering we lost ono 
day. 

It just disappeared from the calendar entirely — the 
day that we crossed the international date-line at the 180th 
meridian, about five days out from Hawaii. 

We jumped from Monday to Wednesday, and we cele- 
brated the fact that such an occurrence is real by an en- 
tertainment on the long deck in the way of an amateur 
jolification for the afternoon, affording such stunts as could 
be accommodated on our ship's deck, as a potato race by 
the ladies, where they participated equal to the occasion, 
a sack race by the men, which sent up shouts from the 
other passengers, and considerable mirth when the young 
lady's three-legged race came off. 

Then a hair-dressing contest where the men "did up" 
the lady partners hair in the least possible time drew forth 
much sympathy for the ladies heads. 

The day ended with a pillow fight — for among all these 
passengers there was much talent and quite varied: some 
wrote poetry, others composed music while some enacted 
stage features and on certain evenings an exhibition would 
be given of same. 

We had a hostess, or social director with an assistant 
on the ship that sought out the more talented and willing 
ones, and arranged these programs where each one con- 
tributed their special feature for entertainment to pass 
away the evenings, including card parties, lectures and 
dances (where everybody joined except the captain), also 
colored picture shows, where ice cream 'and punch was 
served at intervals. 

We all enjoyed these amateur evenings, and every- 
body was merry even tho we were in the middle of the big 
sea, for there was some non-stop runs of as many as eleven 



2g WHIRL AROUND THE WORLD. 

days without sight of land, so we naturally sought solace 
in each other. 

I found diversion in meditation on the surroundings, 
as the beautiful water scenes the one appealing feature, 
the great expanse of the ocean ; how powerful, and destruc- 
tive, how helpless we are at a thousand miles from any- 
where, yet how gentle it seems as we skim lightly along 
on its bosom in the night with only the boat and the stars 
in the sky visible, and I step to the railing and look over 
into the deep, far below, and watch the phosphorous waves> 
for we are cutting a wide swath, and I am glued to the rail 
as by magnet at the constant sound of the swish of the 
waters as they are divided by our keel — sometimes louder 
than others, owing to the pressure of the hidden swells. 

After awhile the lights grow dim in our floating home, 
a few belated persons straggle across the decks who have 
come out for a last smoke, or the last look at the sea by 
night before turning in, then all is hushed and we plow 
silently on in the lonesome darkness, and I, unwilling to 
surrender, look up and wonder what can be the solitary 
thots of the "lookout" man as he sits in the little crows 
nest half way up the high mast, guarding any impending 
danger to our safety, and I stroll further on, for I'm up on 
boat-deck now and I survey the huge life boats — ten in 
number, five on either side, with tarpaulin laced down 
tightly over the tops and provisioned for sustenance a 
certain length of time — resting in their cradles on the 
deck, strung by ropes and pulleys to the big iron davits above 
ready to be swung out at a moments notice, and I shud- 
dered, there in the still dark night as I pictured to myself 
a sudden call of alarm, and members of the crew rushes 
to this boat, this life boat, which is either your death- 
dealer or your savior, cuts the lacing, strips off the canvas, 
swings the davits round and the boat is suspended over the 
side of the ship, and with confusion everywhere I am com- 
manded to step in, and with others am lowered down the 
side of this big black iron ship to the water fifty feet below 
and set adrift in the dark sea, with night all around, and 



ON THE PACIFIC. 27 

the wailing and horrors of yielded hopes of our friends and 
companions left to their doom on board a ship in its last 
throes, as in the Titanic disaster of the year before. 

I draw a long breath of dreadfulness at what the 
spectacle might have been on that ill-fated night, and re- 
sume my solitary patrol along the deck which is now de- 
serted, for it has reached a late hour. 

I walk on past the wireless cabin, where the Marconi 
follower is busily attentive to his duties in the little apart- 
ment — the walls and tables lined with wires and nickel 
trappings which, for better comparison, has all the appear- 
ance of a watch tinker's shop. 

Weary of the inky surroundings, I drop down several 
flights of stairs — the electric lights all turned off, save for 
a few guiding ones — and retire to my berth. 

The next morning finds us all up early; probably 'to 
see a sunrise, or to see the antics of a school of leaping or 
flying fish, or perhaps a vessel at a distance — for they are 
not a common sight in crossing the Pacific — in fact, any 
object that appeared on the horizon would command the 
undivided attention even unto ejaculation of the pass- 
engers. 

After breakfast, out on deck again ; some of our ladies 
crocheting or making fancy work of various kinds, others 
of us lay back in our deck chairs all covered with steamer 
rugs of a Comanche combination of colors and read or 
write, some would pair off and play shuffieboard — the chief 
deck pastime, while others took to the smoking room or 
swimming pool, or brush up on cards for the progressive 
game slated for the evening. At seven o'clock, punctually, 
dinner was served to all, and we, in answer to the bugle 
call, were expected to appear in evening dress and be merry 
to the tunes of the band and a seven-course service, where, 
before we got clear round the globe, all the delicious edibles 
in the world had been served, our tickets being first-class, 
we had the best of everything. 

Our last day on the Pacific was Sunday, and we had 
encountered an electrical storm the previous night where 



28 



WHIRL AROUND THE' WORLD. 




ON THE PACIFIC. 29 

the rain poured and the tarpaulins flapped in the wind and 
the lightning flashed all over the heavens and was reflected 
in the waters all about us leaving us in a bed of flames ap- 
parently, and all day Sunday the sea ran high and the 
swells caused our Bhip to rise and fall at an alarming dis- 
parity, slapping her sides with terrifying force, pouring in 
without a moments warning, at the lower port holes that had 
not been closed against it and running along the halls until 
arrested by a steward's mop. 

Altho we had a minister on board who was expected 
to discourse on each Sabbath at sea, he did not have a rec- 
ord assemblage on this particular morning — none of them 
washed overboard, but detained below. 

All afternoon it grew worse and I, having sought ref- 
uge in my berth^^ could feel the aft of the vessel dive as 
low as it dared in the water and seemed to meditate on 
rising; then a terrible grinding crunch, seemingly caused 
by manipulation of the steering gear in righting the ship 
would make the whole steamer tremble, then a rehearsal of 
this, until we were all glad to know that we were nearing 
Japan, where the next day at noon we sailed into the har- 
bour of Yokohama, the port for the center of the largest 
of Japan's four large islands. 



JAPAN. 

came into this haven with a snowstorm which 
blighted our hopes of seeing one of the chief characteristics 
of Japan — that of the much prized cherry blossoms in full 
bloom. 

Of course, it being almost the first of March and this 
little island country, not quite as large as our state of 
California, but with a population more than one-half that 
of the whole United States, and lying in the same latitude, 
there Avas little wonder at the weather and we were pre- 
pared for it, tho we disliked it. 

At this port we docked at the wharf. 

There were big warehouses outlining, and a railroad 
track running right down to the pier. I looked down from 
the top deck of the steamer and got my first impressions 
of Japanese in their native country. The little brown fel- 
lows, with square faces and wide nose-bridge, slanting 
black eyes and black hair as stiff as bristles, were running 
along the wharf here and there, trying to roll a big high 
derrick-looking ladder along side the steamer, to run the 
ship's gang plank out on, two or three decks above, and 
where we were expected to go down this ladder to the 
wharf, but it was a lumbersome, obstinate thing and 
wouldn't stay put; it got off the track and there was dan- 
ger of it toppling over and raising a commotion just as our 
high body of Americans were getting their first glimpse 
of this Asiatic territory, and they all set up a jabber, all 
talking at once and as fast as they could, jesticulating in 
accordance with the accent, showing irritation, disgust and 
condemnation, until we were all amused, as well as inter- 
ested in the situation. 

When they finally righted our stairway, and we passed 
down onto the wharf, our next "expectant surprise," was 
the rick-shaw, which I had always viewed in pictures as a 



plaything and pastime, but now I found they were real and 
I was to get in one of them and be pulled around over the 
streets by a little trotting man or "coolie," as they are 
called who officiate in that capacity. 

There were scores of these little rick-shaws lined up 
at the wharf for our use. 

They looked such a dainty conveyance, with their little 
black polished beds the shape of a go-cart, with upholstered 
seat and back, just big enuf for a single person, with 
canopy top laid back and all balanced on springs on one 
axle, with two glittering, spindled, rubber-tired wheels. 

The little shafts are dropt to the walk and I step in, 
the coolie deigning to touch your hand, but smilingly does 
so, in assisting you to a sure mount, while adjusting your 
American feet to the narrow tiny beds^ tucking the silk 
plush rug or robe around you, picks up the shafts that 
have a bar connecting the front ends, where he steps, and 
trots off with you at the mercy of the springs and his sure- 
footedness. 

You are seized with a captivating sensation as you 
spin along lightly in this fairy like equipment, for these 
little fellows, anxious to ingratiate thems'elves in your 
"tipping" favor, are fleet-footed, and right well do they 
fare, for they certainly prey upon a foreigner's sympathy. 

It was very disagreeable after the snow and travel 
had made the streets and dirt rbads slippery, but these 
little coolies worked manfully, often doing half day runs 
with only slight interventions clad in dark blue uniform 
characteristic — pants that are made pouchy at the seat for 
free movement in long trotting, and narrowed to elastic 
tightness around their calves, which bulge out in great 
knots from long continued use of those muscles. The feet 
are encased in the same goods with the four smaller toes 
in one, while the great toe is always separately encased, 
thus allowing of a strapping running between, the toes to 
the center of each side of the matting or sisal sandal or 
pad, to hold them on their feet as soles, which would soak 
up wet on such occasion as this, endangering their health, 



32 



WHIRL AROUND THE WORLD. 



as I noticed every one of them had a hacking cough, and 
I was told that those who take up this vocation stamps 
themselves short-lived, and one could readily see why. 
Their top covering is a little kimona-shaped shirt or blouse 
affair with flowing sleeves, with great wliite Japanese 
characters all over the back. 

These blouses are often tied down with an all-too-long- 
used scarf, their head being protected with the regulation 
coolie hat, which looks like an inverted tray of canvas on 
stilts stuck round the head-band. These have numbers or 
characters printed on the backs, as license,^ to distinguish 
one coolie from another. 

I never could remember either the number or face, but 
they always remembered their portege, and smilingly 
beckon to you as you emerge from some place of interest 
that you have stopped on your way to visit. 

. For two weeks we traveled in this novel and attrac- 
tive, to almost alluring, way thru the cities of Japan. 

Of course, the natives all use this mode of conveyance 
to different parts of the city, or at least those who can 
afford it, and it is no uncommon sight to see a Japanese 
woman and two or three children — the Japs being of much 
smaller race — in one rick-shaw, being drawn thru the 
streets by a coolie of a diminutive build, or perhaps his 
passenger is a man with a camel's load of boxes and pack- 
ages, but when these little men strike up a long trot, some- 
thing like a coyote, they are good for hours. 

There are a great many automobiles in Yokohama, but 
the streets are too narrow for them to become general, and 
only in the newer or more modern parts, made so by for- 
eign ideas gathered since the opening up of this long locked 
up nation, are autos used to an advantage. They can never 
squeeze thru these little bamboo lanes, and cut all the 
curves and angles. 

There are some extensive business houses in this, one 
of the world's great seaports, with a population of 270,000, 
much more than the whole state of Arizona, who so re- 
cently planted another star on our flag. 



JAPAN. gg 

These big mercantile establishments are presided over 
by Japanese tho often by foreigners. 

But it was the more primitive quarters that com- 
manded our attention, the miles of little one-story shops 
opening right off the streets and so near facing each other 
that there is only room for a rick-shaw to pass between — 
just a continuous line of merchandise hanging out on the 
front, for there are no doors or windows, only shutters set 
up in place at night, so all is open thru the day, tho it is 
cold and damp. 

There are no stoves in these little shops, nothing but 
fire-pots, round and square, big and little, half filled with 
ashes on which the little pile of charcoal burns, and where 
these men shop-keepers sit round or stand, and hold their 
hands over the meager heat and smoke their long stemmed 
pipes that end in a tiny thimble, and never worry about 
customers. 

Their exchange thruout the day must, without a 
doubt, be run on a minute- scale, and around each shop front 
there are from thr^e to six and seven children of all sizes 
playing back and forth across the street, for the family 
lives back of these little shops, where the floor rises to a 
platform about two feet high, and all enclosed by whole, or 
half sliding walls of little wood window frames filled with 
white parchment paper — instead of glass— which are light- 
weight and easily moved back and forth. ' These are the 
only windows in these houses. 

Often as we passed, we v/ould look thru the .opening 
of these screens and see the Japanese women sitting in 
there on mats or cushions on the floor of this elevated plat- 
form 'where they always drop their shoes en the outside 
before entering, leaving it quite reasonable that these little 
people can sit on their floor, which is characteristic of 
Japan. 

Think of a house without chairs, think of no millinery 
bills to pa., , or no vexing stovepipes to put up, no anxiety 
about the latest vvhims in dress, as one pattern cuts them 
all, rich or poor, the only variation boing in the fabric, 



34 



WHIRL AROUND THE WORLD. 



which covers a long range from the flimsiest of cottons to 
the most artistically embroidered silks. 

What imprest me most, was the great number of chil- 
dren. There were children everywhere. The streets off 
the main thorofare were full of them, the street corners 
were full of them, and they were all doubled up, for each 
one of them carried another on its back. 

Children, from five to ten years carrying other chil- 
dren from one month to five years strapped on their backs 
with yards of goods wound round their waists and under 
arms and around the bulk of the child and tied in a knot 
in front, and the child is supposedly secure, for these chil- 
dren go right on with their play, stooping over at pleasure, 
or any other movement that goes to make up their "jolly 
good time," while the child on the back looks on helplessly, 
or being asleep, its head doddles around lifelessly. 

All the children, both boys and girls were swathed 
heavily in thick padded kimonas with sashes about their 
waists to hold them on — for no buttons or pins are used, 
and as it grew colder they kept putting on more kimonas, 
all of dark, largely figured pattern and all uncleanly from 
long use. 

They seldom wore anything on their heads, their 
coarse straight black hair stringing across a pleasant but 
tarnished face. 

Some of the very least babies that were just sitting 
up looked too cunning for any use in their tiny kimona of 
bright colors, their hair shaved to form a lamp-mat on top 
of their head. 

Why shouldn't they appear numerous, when there are 
more than 55 million, or more than one-half the population 
of the United States, gathered on territory no larger than 
one of our states, not discounting that portion of Japan 
that is mountainous and uninhabitable. 

A great many of the Japanese men, and some young 
students are affecting European dress thruout, and indeed, 
are fine specimens of manhood, are intelligible, worthy of 
consideration in their economical habits in that they make 



JAPAN. 35 

their small territory support or maintain their abundant 
papulation besides exporting some of their products to 
other nations. 

They are of small stature, with yellowish or sallow com- 
plexion, high cheek bones, teeth too long and jaws too set 
to speak English plainly, are quite active, shrewd, skillful, 
fearless and courteous. 

The majority of the men wear loose pleated skirts 
with girdle or sash at waist with a kind of shirtrcoat with 
big floAving sleeves. This dress is oftener of silk than not, 
and generally of gray with woven figure, and really they 
manage these skirts quite artfully. 

The women wear either cotton or silk kimonas — no 
other style is seen in Japan— with a wide sash or obi, often 
sixteen inches wide, folded round the waist forming a pil- 
low on the back. These obies play the most important part 
of the dress, as they are usually of all high colors and fig- 
ures, are more than a half yard wide and three yards long. 

The style shops are hung full of them at quite high 
prices, many of our passengers bought them for their, 
significance. 

The women, when on parade, paint to an artistic de- 
gree and are quite good to look upon with their coarse 
straight black hair mucilaged to stand up in stiff bow-knots 
or coils, all carrying the typical parasol, as hats are not 
worn by the women of this nation, in fact, I noticed that 
millinery, that most important accessory with us, is a lost 
art all the waj^ round the world from our States, until the 
western European countries are reached. 

There are handsome women wearing exquisitely em- 
broidered silk creations, (for nowhere is their persistent 
art 01 silk embroidery excelled) and we would often see 
them out for a walk. 

But the poorer clad and less particular predominate, 
and they being so numerous it was interesting to watch 
these little women slip along the narrow footpaths, called 
sidewalks, in their bunchy kimonas and little matting shoes 
pr pads. 



36 



WHIRL AROUND THE WORLD. 




— Photo by Undex-wood & Underwood. 
SHOE STORE— JAPAN. 



JAPAN. '^v-' 3^ 

Sometimes these pads would be raised on shaped 
-wooden cleats for wet weather wear, but always held on 
by straps between the great toe and the remaining four, 
necessitating the stocking or short sock which is always 
made of bleached drill hooked on with metal loops at the 
back, to be made with a gusset separating the toes as above 
to permit the straps passing thru — thereby the great toe 
becomes the important factor while the heel swings at 
large, but the wearers manage them with original tact. 

A shoe store on the streets is a curiosity — almost the 
whole stock hangs suspended from the roof gable down to 
the narrow walk. 

The better grade of the matting shoes, and according 
to the embroidery on the velvet straps, sell for 80 sen or 
about 40 cents of our money, while the white sox cost the 
same. 

I searched for a pair large enuf for American feet but 
found none, but purchased a pair anyway as a reminder 
that they are real and a necessity instead of a toy as we 
are prone to believe from the pictures, before visiting this 
nation of original and picturesque ideas thot out by these 
little men and women. 

Everj^thing is done on a miniature scale, that is, all 
except drilling for war. 

Their mode of travel must be small in some of the dis- 
tricts to conform to the passages, for in our rick-shaw, in 
which we wind thru little narrow lanes around little bam- 
boo fenced lots and garden fronts, all much more resembles 
an American "playground." 

Then in further pursuance, we go up multiples of steps 
and down as many, right in the middle of the streets, and 
often a good street terminates in dozens of steps leading 
up to some official place, and sometimes a hundred great 
wide ones, if up to a temple, for it must be remembered 
Japan is mountainous and its important cities abound on 
the coast only, sloping back up the incline to the moun- 
tains, where excellent vistas are obtained and where, on 



38 



WHIRL AROUND THE WORLD. 



one occasion we climbed a hundred of these steps to a tea 
house to view a panorama of Yokohama which consisted 
mainly of acres and acres of black slate and tile roofs, with 
nary a sign of chimney, sloping off into a wonderful and 
busy harbour with the great expanse of sea beyond. 

The buildings, apart from the more modern business 
centers, are rarely above two stories and very low at that, 
with tiny balconies on the upper story projecting out over 
the sidewalk below. 

The lower stories are used for little shops, where the 
whole front is open, even in winter, where are kept native 
shoes exclusively, in another, brooms only, which are made 
of a long stiff grass tied on a stick, and, by the way, I saw 
them sweeping the big rotunda of the fine modern Grand 
Hotel on the bund (that means water front) with these 
so-called brooms 

In other shops would be all kinds of Japanese baskets 
only ,fantastic to a degree and I wished for one of every 
design and color to bring home. 

The greed of our merchants in the States in cornering 
every line of necessities trade demands, is lost sight of by 
these little shopkeepers of single lines, thereby avoiding 
exertion. 

So on and on down the long narrov>^ lanes these small 
shops repeat themselves, eventually emerging into a broad 
street lined on either side with modern built three and four 
story grand silk houses. 

It Y'/as amusing to watch the enthusiasm of our Amer- 
icans rushing from counter to counter, almost hidden in 
the amazing revelry of rich silks, piles of kimonas and 
mandarin coats all padded and heavily embroidered with 
chrysanthemums and wisteria, Japan's native flowers, 
trailing far down the backs, lending elegance, and of which 
they bought unreservedly, paying fabulous prices for some 
exquisitely executed design, altho seemingly cheap. 

It has been about forty years since Japan let down her 
bars and opened up to foreign intercourse, and have sought 
foreign views on development, with a result that cosmo- 



JAPAN. 39 

politan ideas prevail in the newer parts of all the large 
cities, which demand these great silk emporiums and other 
advancement in catering to the foreign trade. 

Here, too, the rick-shaw trots side by side with the 
modern street car, the crude freight cart drawn by oxen 
whose feet are actually shod, vie with the almost diminu- 
tive steam cars. 

There are electric lights, phones and telegraph sys- 
tems, same as we have, but to get back off of these few 
blocks of special enterprise into the more primitive quar- 
ters, you'll note the inhabitants are loath to exchange their 
customs habitaually, for the swift modern ways, and who 
would wish them, to exchange characteristics, as every 
thing would become a sameness soon and no one would care 
to travel round the world. 

But from association v/ith foreigners, the younger ele- 
ment show great desire to master the English language, 
as later, when I arrived at the depot in Tokio, a young stu- 
dent of about twenty years, clad in gray silk shirt and 
sash, with cloth cape, European cap and shoes and wear- 
ing glasses and a becoming smile, stepped up to me and 
explained that he had been under the tutorship of an Amer- 
ican and was a Christian, and asked me if I would kindly 
correspond with him in English. I told him I would gladly 
do so if he would benefit by so doing, and he writes me he 
is improving. He showed mie thru the newspaper press in 
Tokio where he works, showed me that you have to begin 
at the bottom of the newspaper and read up, and that the 
front page of a magazine is on the back. 

While in Yokohama, with two other tourists, I visited 
a private house where I witnessed a "ceremonial, tea," the 
correct manipulation of which is deemed a great accom- 
plishment. 

On entering this home, deining to take off our shoes, 
we were given a cloth with which to wipe them, and passed 
into the neat little room which looked more like a doll house 
with its windows made out of little parchment squares put 
together with small framework, and floor all carpeted 
neatly with bound matting rugs of uniform size, partitions 



40 



WHIRL AROUND THE WORLD. 



and walls covered with the same, where they shift these 
partitions and walls back throwing two or three rooms to- 
gether. 

The two receiving Nipponese young ladies daintily en- 
cased in soft kimonas, knelt down gracefully on their pil- 
lows and bowed clear to the floor, while we were left to 
fold ourselves down like a jack-knife on the remaining pil- 
lows, which strained posture forced us to shift positions 
quite frequently which we did with as little awkwardness 
as our liberal build could command. 

Then with more bowing to the floor, one commenced 
to wash the bowl out, that she was to wash the rag in 
that she was to wash the tea pot with, and after most 
thirty minutes maneuvering in like manner with these 
vessels all round her on the floor, with the burning coals 
in a neat little fire pot sunk in the floor, we were finally 
passed the tea in a large bowl with Wafers, which we 
termed delicious. 

After tea we were invited up stairs, which tiny stairs 
we shambled up at our peril, 'twas so narrow we had to 
turn sideways and the steps were so narrow we had to 
turn our feet sideways. 

We found a large room, it being three rooms thrown 
together by the matting" walls folded back, with no sign 
of furniture save the cushions on the floor. 

On asking where they slept, as no beds were visible, 
the little lady brpt out three silken coverlets, threw them 
on the floor of matting, put a little wooden yoke on the 
floor at the head, placed a roll of cotton wound in paper on 
this, where, when lying down this answers for their pil- 
low. She unfolded three more silken coverlets, or en- 
larged kimonas, threw them over herself and laughingly 
feigned sleep. 

The immaculate appearance of the whole interior ig 
the one appealing feature. 

In order to see with what extreme patience these little 
Japanese men and women work, we followed up stairs over 
a front shop, to a little room in which were a dozen men 
and women sitting on the floor stooped over boxes work- 



JAPAN. 4]^ 

ing on the much prized cloisonne ware — which is the art 
of enameling figures and landscapes on metal vases or 
various shaped articles. 

I Vv^atched them first brush the vase over with a kind 
of gum_, then they set to v/ork with long keen nippers and 
picked up the tiniest bits of curved silver wire, placing 
them on this gummy surface, following the design that 
had been outlined, then filled in each of these little loops 
made by the curved v/ires with different colored enamels 
according to the colors required in the pattern, with a 
pointed brush. 

When this enamiel is set, it is sent to the firing room, 
afterwards brot back for another process. 

These workers in almost every case wore glasses. . 

This almost unending work wrot on every piece ac- 
counts for the high prices attached to real cloisonne. 

Then we visited the shops of "Satsuma" ware, whose 
creamy surface make a rich background for the hand- 
painted chrysanthemum with its long languid flues or the 

B-i'"" 

graceful trailing of the wisteria, or the varied blues of 
the iris or the faint pinks of the cherry blossoms wh^n 
brot out on an uniquely shaped vase or other mould, and 
for which fabulous sums are asked over here. 

Another trip was made to the ivory-carving rooms, 
which art has becom-e another branch of industry com- 
manding the skill and patience of more than a thousand 
ivory-carvers thruout Japan today and their original de- 
signs are certainly marvelous. 

Paper enters largely into the uses or possibilities of 
this m.iniature country, all the way from a house to a hand- 
kerchief, as moving among them will attest, and their ar- 
tistic stationary finds unstinted patronage from our people 
who love dainty things. 

After we had had a daily round of these little shops 
that carry so much rich, rare, unique and much coveted 
articles, on reaching our ship at night, the halls and deck 
would be full of Japs who had come on board with their 
wares in lieu of making a sale, even calling at your cabin 
door entreating you to buy, which you do at your own 



42 



WHIRL AROUND THE WORLD. 



price rather than lose a sale, but you must use your own 
judgment as to the genuineness of his wares as you can- 
not depend upon their reliability, as some of us found out 
later, - however, as they were of such congenial tempera- 
ment, we did not feel badly towards them for the decep- 
tion. 

I went to temeples galore, for there are temples every- 
where in Japan. 

They seem as numerous as windmills in Missouri. 

These temples are about the first thing the coolies 
expect you want to see outside of Fujiyama, which is their 
sacred mountain, and used to be volanic, but has been 
dormant for two hundred years. 

It is 12,500 feet high, almost as high as Pike's Peak 
in the Rockies, and it is a wonderful sight, being cone- 
shaped and independent of lesser peaks, all around the top 
being smoothly covered with snow, which I was told is 
perpetual, and as the little coolie trots along in the tiny 
shafts of the rick-shaw he looks back and points out to- 
ward the mountain, exclaiming "Fuji, Fuji," without 
slackening his pace, for this mountain is visible from most 
everywhere in Japan, and reminds me of the snowy top of 
Mt. Popocatapetl glistening in the sun as viewed from 
Chapultupec Castle in Mexico City, the summer home of 
the president of Old Mexico, where I toured on a former 
occasion. 

A guide explains Japan's temples to you in their half- 
broken English, but if the worship of Japan's people has 
been neglected in your knowledge of "The World" you will 
get little good of his efforts. 

Buddhism is the prevailing religion of Japan, as it 
also is of China, Ceylon and Java, in fact, nearly all the 
countries of the Far East embrace this belief. 

This sort of acknowledging willingness to follow orig- 
inally splendid teachings declared orally by Buddha and 
written down by his deciples after his death, 2,500 years 
ago, and which has now become confused with the wor- 
shiping of the idol of the founder himself, is followed by 
about one-third of the whole human race. 



JAPAN. 43 

And how devoted they are, in their manifestations of 
his superiority. 

Invoking, as they stand with bowed head in long sil- 
ence before his image. 

Then Shintoism is the other form of the two great 
religions of Japan, and in its origin, was a form of nature 
worship, but now has developed into ancestor worship and 
sacrifice to departed heroes, and what a wonderful pride 
the Japanese take, in fact, they almost seem to live in the 
reverence of these Buddhist temples and Shinto shrines, 
some reaching the acme of magnificent build, others less 
pretentious. 

The finest temples are large, bare of any seats what- 
ever, floor generally matting covered, large columns, with 
interior and exterior adorned with hand carving, inlaid 
gold and cloisonne introduced somewhere. 

They are certainly marvels of art and together with 
the shrines dedicated to some long dead man who has made 
himself a hero in the eyes of the descending generation, 
whereon visiting so many of these hallowed objects, I often 
wonder what these monuments and the upkeep of same 
have cost Japan. 

There are broad avenues leading up to these temples 
of worship lined on either side with great stone lanterns, 
lanterns that have been stationed there in memory of the 
departed one, by the family. 

This great devotional display is marveled at by the 
unknowing. 

Besides there being hundreds of temples and shrines 
in the cities, they are scattered all thru the outlying coun- 
try, and we came upon^them in lonely shady nooks in the 
forest, and on the silent hills and really in some of the 
most inopportune places, and it is this very feature that 
tends to make up picturesque Japan. 

One morning we boarded the train to take a cross- 
country trip, the little train that seems so diminutive by 
the side of our big copious smooth running coaches and 
our mogul engines. 



44 



WHIRL AXOUND THE WOKLD. 



These cars have their upholstered benches running 
along the side of the car from end to end and very low, of 
course, as they v/ere built for Japanese use, thereby throw- 
ing our diversified American feet and shoe leather to the 
mercy of the train officials who were constantly running 
up and dov/n the narrow aisle. 

After a fifty minutes ride, whisking thru beautiful 
landscapes v/e swung out to the city on the sea — Kama- 
kura. 

This little village, now a summer resort lying on the 
shores of the Pacific, was once the capitol of the whole 
empire and contained a million people. 

But lying where the waves of the ocean laved her 
feet incessantly in a languid, free and unreserved intimacy 
until twice, in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, this 
familiarity burst into fury and great tidal waves forced 
themselves in and completely overwhelmed, enveloping and 
finally annihilating this city that had trusted the sincerity 
of her alliance — her sustainer became her foe, so today 
a small village used as a summer resort basks lazily on 
the beach, void of all industry but makes a pleasing Orien- 
tal picture which once seen will draw you back again: a 
great expanse of unmatchable blue with wave ruffles in 
white lacy foam advancing and retracting on mode-colored 
sand backed by reddish cliffs overgrown with shaded green 
forestry, guarded by Fujiyama whose white mantel reaches 
far up to meet the blue of the sky that fades into sunset 
yellow down at the horizon. 

Such highly colored panorama leaves lasting indenta- 
tions on ones memory. 

After absorbing this beautiful v/ater front, and water 
scenes or sea-scapes are, to me, the most appealing feature 
of all travel sights, I stepped back into the little fairy 
carryall — the rick-shaw, the little knowing horse — the 
coolie — picked up the shafts and trotted off and dropt them 
again a half a mile up the slope from the Pacific, on a hill 
where stands a statue of Buddha, whose towering height, 
tho in a sitting posture with long gold eyes glancing down- 
ward, seemingly at you, almost appalls you. 



JAPAN. 



45 




— Photo by Underwooi & Underwood. 
BUDDHA AT KAMAKURA, JAPAN. 



4g WHIRL AROUND THE WORLD. 

And as you begin to climb one of Japan's series of 
never-ending steps up to his dark stolid, unshakable high- 
ness, you see these little brown people, both men and 
women standing with bowed head in attitude of prayer at 
any time of day, for Buddha knows no Sunday and times 
of worship are not calendared by weeks as in our States,. 
but prayers and offerings are made daily, as we would see 
them turn away after pitching a coin onto an opening in 
the floor,, that was slatted over, the money tinkling on 
down to the bottom of the receptacle. 

This idol, or image, of Buddha, whose doctrine is Nir- 
vana, or an "absolute release from existence," is made of 
bronze, which is an alloy of copper and tin, and sitting on 
a pedestal, is nearly fifty feet high, was cast in separate 
sections and skillfully joined together. 

The face alone is eight feet high and the eyes are of 
solid gold (for they spare no expense on their gods of wor- 
ship) and are four feet long, eyelids drooping, which shows 
off the great bars of gold beneath them. 

There is a ball, or boss of pure silver a foot in dia- 
meter, weighing thirty pounds that stands out in the cen- 
ter of the forehead, and is symbolical of the sixth seiise, 
or power of spiritual insight as a revv^ard of righteous 
living. 

Now, this great statue has been sitting out up here 
in all kinds of wea,ther, calmly glancing downward for six 
hundred years, just as there are hundreds of others over 
Japan, but not quite so m.ajestic as this one on the Pacific 
coast at Kamakura. 

While here, I walked up the steps climbed up in the 
lap of this image, and had my picture taken, which is a 
tourist stunt and which is one of my most prized pictures. 

We visited numerous shrines dedicated to different 
Shoguns to whom some heroic deed had been attributed, 
as you know "Shogun" was the title given to hereditary 
military rulers of Japan for centuries, until the revolution 
of 1868, when the Mikado was reinstated. 

We lunched, or took "tiffin," as the Japs call it, at 
the Kaihin-in Hotel, an inviting hostelry with about sixty 



JAPAN. 47 

rooms, all modern, and sits in a park-like ground of lawn 
with pine groves. 

Here we were presented to the mayor of Kamakura, 
a little aged man, very dark, but greeted us kindly and 
gave us his card. 

On going thru the social parlor of this unique hotel, 
one must not overlook the mural decoration, the entire 
sides are hand-painted in the artistic way, with the flora 
characteristic of Japan, which I never tire of reading or 
writing about after once having seen these particular ones 
in their native home — the wisteria, whose trailing blossoms 
hang suspended fully fifteen inches long, shading from 
purple to lavender, with the tall purple iris on long stems 
rising up to meet them, and I afterward saw this native 
flower, the iris, growing and blossoming on the cone of the 
thatched roofs of some of the houses of the poorer in- 
habitants along the coast or lake fronts. 

Then there is a great flow of cherry blossoms worked 
over the wall — these blossoms are pale fluttery pink, are 
fruitless and grow on great trees resembling our unpruned 
sprangling peach trees, .and really they spread a pinkish 
glow all over Japan when fn blossom, which is the last of 
March; — and lastly comes the" great yellow chrysanthemum 
with long graceful flues reaching out like so many tentacles 
— all of this goes to make up this beautiful floral wall, not 
panels, iust ramble at will over the whole. 

With loathing, we left Kamakura, the ill-fated city, 
but charming resort by the sea, and went to Tokio, only 
tv/o hours away where rick-shaws awaited us and we were 
whisked out to view the Imperial Palace, v/here the Mikado 
resides behind high enclosed stone walls, and this com- 
pletely surrounded by a moat, an extra wide moat filled 
with water to guard against any approach to the walls. 

Great trees overhang these walls and are reflected in 
the mirr6r~bf water below, which is blue in its stillness, 
and where entrance is only gained by drawbridge to the 
castle. 

Broad white plazas, answering for drill grounds, and 
long stretches of v/hite boulevards lead away from this 



AO WHIRL AROUND THE AVORLD. 

Oil out thru the more primitive part vrhere they verge into 
irregular little lanes. 

Tokio is the capitol of this island empire, and you can 
guess it takes time to cover it as its area is one hundred 
square miles, with a population of nearly two million. 

We visited the more important sights. 

The Sumida river runs thru the city, where it is 
crossed by numerous bridges, and it's one of the inter- 
esting sights to see fine modern government, and imposing 
business houses and the old-time wooden buildings stand- 
ing side by side, the old ones, as yet, not having given way 
to the nevv^er and broader development. 

And I am sure the natives, accustomed to their nar- 
rower lines of architecture are awed by the august ap- 
pearance of some of these "new-life" entries. 

We took our meals at the Imperial Hotel, as all the 
larger cities in Japan have hotels conducted on the Eu- 
ropean plan. 

Some of our party took inland trips and resorted to 
native cookery, and on surviving, resolved "no more" — 
menu : fish and rice and tea and tea and rice and fish. 

There is an enterprising league called the "Welcome 
Society of Japan" with headquarters in the Tokio Cham- 
ber of Commerce that would be of great benefit to tourists 
who are "doing" Japan. 

For a small sum you can become a member of this 
organization and enjoy all the privileges conducive to bet- 
ter sight-seeing. 

After a week in the Imperial portion of this little 
fiowery kingdom, we embarked for Kobe, another port sec- 
ond in importance to Yokohama, sailing three hundred and 
fifty miles along the south xoast of the island Hondu and 
coming in port at the head of the Inland Sea where our 
ship dropt anchor out in the deep for the first time on 
account of the water being too shallow for our big steamer 
to approach the docks, and we came down the long stair- 
way which was unfolded and let down on the outside of 



JAPAN. 49 

the big ship, forming fifty steps, with only a strip of 
tarpaulin and a wood railing between you and the deep. 

Here we dropt down into steam launches and were 
taken across the harbour to shore, where the polished little 
rick-shaws awaited us and we trotted off to acquaint our- 
selves with other parts of Japan. 

I'll just add that the service. of a rick-shaw and coolie 
is one and a half to two yen per day of eight hours, being 
seventy-five cents and one dollar of our money. 

About fifteen years ago, restrictions of passports was 
done away with, and now all foreigners can travel thruout 
Japan without that annoyance. 

As we approached Kobe, the long mountains loomed 
up in the "distance and from the steamer, we had an un- 
broken view of a most wonderfully perfect anchor, of 
prodigious dimensions worked out in dark green shrubbery 
lying against a well shorn light back ground way up at the 
top of one of the mountains, on the side facing all incom- 
ing steamers. 

It is truly an original piece of landscape, and on draw- 
ing into the harbour one must not fail to see it. 

We lunched at the fine big stone Oriental Hotel in 
Kobe, and left for the Nunobiki waterfall. 

Around and up and around the picturesque mountain 
sides we went, thru shady miniature canyons with over- 
hanging mountain trees, up to where the great walls on 
both sides nearly come together, and there, high up, un- 
folds and spreading downward a long sheet of water spray- 
ing away in the basin below. 

There is a little rest house with glass balconies for 
viewing this freak of nature, built out over this charming 
mountain and water display that runs on forever, unmind- 
ful of its isolation. 

We lingered long up here in this sequestered place to 
hear the lonely strum of the splashing, gurgling and rush- 
ing water as it tumbled on down the mountains into the 
reservoir way below, where it furnishes water to Kobe, the 



50 



WHIRL AROUND THE WORLD. 



city of 100,000 houses and a population of 400,000 almost 
that of San Francisco. 

Down in the city are several canals conducting these 
mountain streams thru the city to the water front, or 
"Bund" as it is termed by all the Orientals. 

Suwayama Park is back of the city up in the foothills, 
just a beautiful place to get a great panoramic view of the 
city and harbour below. 

There is a Shinto shrine up here on one side of the 
very level grounds, where aged trees stand, their lofty 
branches sheltering the whole parkway. 

Of course, there is the foreign settlement of modern 
build that is fast becoming a part of every Oriental city, 
but it was the sylvan scenery and the bewitching costum- 
ing of the little people that held us as in a vise. Temples 
and shrines galore abound thruout Kobe and vicinity and 
we visited the m.ore important ones, but had to bide our 
time. 

Entrained, we rounded the harbour, going thru the 
agricultural districts to Osaka, which is the wealthiest com- 
mercial and manufacturing city in Japan, and next to Tokio 
in population, and indeed, it sends a long trailing smoke 
out over its city. 

We get many cheap things from these manufacturing 
towns, as we saw them making toothbrushes by hand by 
the hundreds for there are so many of them, and they have 
ample time. 

Many of the toys from here barely hold together until 
they reach this side and are sold. Our floor matting in 
daily use comes from here, as also does the camphor we 

use. 

From here we went to Nara, where we rode for hours 
in rick-shaws thru the most beautiful of natural parks, 
called the Kasuga. This is certainly one of Japan's assets 
as nowhere else have I seen anything like it. 

A park full of the finest specimens of aged and lofty 
trees, with great trunks, taking on the most graceful 



JAPAN. 



51 



poses as they curved far out throwing their towering 
branches to meet across the broad boulevard under which 
our rickshaws would run six abreast, we admiring the fa- 
mous tree canopy overhead, stopping at times to feed the 
tame deer that run at liberty thru the park. 

There are hundreds of them, and the little brown 
speckled meek looking things would follow us and eat out 
of our hands, the park attendants having sold us wafers 
for this purpose. 

Nara was the capitol of the empire back in the eighth 
century, but now is only one-tenth its former size. 

It has many temples, among them the Wakamiya, 
with its long avenue of stone lanterns, lanterns which are 
almost monuments in their size, and indeed, they are monu- 
ments, as they are placed there in memory of some one. 

They each have a cavity at the top where little win- 
dows are pasted over with parchment, the light shining 
thru when lit, as they are on certain occasions, which must 
present a grand spectacle, and especially when including 
the hundreds of fancy metal ones hanging all round the 
eves of these pagodaed temples. 

This long line is just a streak of grandeur distinctive 
only of Japan and I thot "what sublime devotion" as I 
wandered on in wonderment and admiration at this little 
land of pagodas. 

We lunched at the big Nara hotel, away up on a high 
knob where the grounds are superb, and a magnificent 
view of the surrounding country confirms our good im- 
pressions of Japan. 

Amid all the attractions that confront us we have for- 
gotten our ship and the sea for the time and have gone 
farther up in the interior by rail to Kyoto. 

All the way we were attracted to the miniature farm- 
ing of rice and other foodstuffs. 

Rice is the main crop and is a big pursuit in this world, 
for it is more largely consumed by inhabitants than any 
other grain. 



52 



WHIRL AROUND THE WORLD. 



As we were whisked around these little fields or pad- 
dies, on and up, high up, on the mountain sides, walled all 
round with sod or mud or straw, rice straw, to hold the 
water that is necessary for its growth, the water from 
mountain tops being drained into a succession of these 
trays, or beds that are cultivated way up on the mountain 
sides, on down into the larger fields below where irrigation 
is resorted to on the more level tracts. 

The rice seed is first sown in beds and when well 
started it is pulled up and transplanted singly in these little 
fields, after they have first been prepared by flooding with 
water to soften the ground which has become dried thru 
the winter, using fertilizer from the villages, then plowed 
with a kind of stick with a near-shoe on the end, and pulled 
along by the slow plodding big black carraboa, or water 
buffalo, where many men and women wade about in this 
polluted mud, plowing and transplanting, all wearing taw- 
dry cotton kimonas, all bunched around them and trousers 
above their knees, and with a handkerchief or a straw mat 
tied over their heads. 

More water is let in on this mud as it evaporates until 
harvest time, when it is allowed to dry or mature, when 
it is cut by hands with sickles and winnowed as our people 
in the States used to thresh wheat a generation or so ago 
before this era of highly improved labor-saving machinery. 

Two crops of rice are raised in a year, in the spring 
and in the fall. 

I sav/ it in most every stage of its cultivation as I 
circled the globe. 

These farms all join for acres and acres as the owners 
all live in little villages and these fields are alive all day 
long with the slow way of working. 

For hours we watched their patient toiling at this 
monotonous task. 

Then there is a cultivation of tea on the hilly tracts. 
This is grown from seed, where after seven years it is a 
shrub about six feet high and wide-spreading. 

The young tender leaves are picked off one by one, 
four times a year and is cured by heating in hot pans over 



JAPAN. 53 

a furnace and rolling or rubbing between your hands until 
they are curled into crisp compact grains or balls. 

This small farming on so original and crude a scale 
was more interesting to me than the city, but we finally 
drew into Kyoto, the little conductor of the train blew his 
whistle which sounds more like a bird-dog whistle, and we 
alighted and scurried for rick-shaws. 

It being nightfall, we enjoyed the long ride thru the 
broad, main streets of this orientally lighted city to the 
big Kyoto Hotel, where we had rooms. 

Next morning we went out to acquaint ourselves with 
Kyoto which means "Capitol," and it was the capitol of 
the empire for eleven centuries, until about five decades 
ago, at the termination of the ruling of Shoguns, when the 
Mikado was reinstated moving the Imperial Court to Tokio, 
the present capitol. 

Kyoto has a population of 380,000 (larger than Kansas 
City), and being in the interior is not imbued with the 
rush and bustle manifested in the ports. We visited the 
cloisonne workshops and various other industries, some 
gorgeous temples, but as there are some eight hundred 
Buddhist temples and about eighty Shinto shrines in Kyoto, 
and one can't help being attracted to them, we soon took 
to the silk shops where we were lost in the rich offerings 
of yards of shimmering silks and embroideries and fine 
chinas and fancy articles such as you see only in Japan, 
until boarding the train to take us back to our seaport, 
Kobe, where we met our ship and immediately embarked 
to sail down the Inland Sea on our way to Nagasaki, our 
last Japanese port, most four hundred miles away. 

And what ideal sailing in this land-locked sea, so calm 
and restful in comparison to the former two weeks of sit- 
ting out on deck and watching just how far the blue line 
at the horizon ran along the guard railing each time the 
ship dipt and rose in the swells that run at large in the 
Pacific. 

This Inland Sea sailing of 240 miles is rightly named 
the "most beautiful sea voyage in the world." 



54 WHIRL AROUND THE Vv'ORLD. 

The green sward beginning at the water's edge and 
running back up to lofty wooded hills, the lake like sheet 
of water expanding and hills growing farther away, only 
to come together soon again in front of our steamer and 
we wonder at an outlet of escape, when we slowly round a 
hidden curve and slip thru a beautiful passage, broadening 
out again and dotted with green islands and sails and 
vessels and queer watercraf t ' of all sizes and types, even 
to a great wooden shrine built out in the water, which 
lends charm to the mysterious and devotional idolizing 
characteristic of these little peoples of this little empire. 

One whole day's perfection sailing, with unexcelled 
panorama sliding by on either side, of green terraced hills 
and forests, with castles, villages and temples reclining at 
its feet, and this repeats itself until after a seemingly 
visionary voyage, we glide out into the open sea thru the 
narrow straits of Schimonoseki and make for Nagasaki 
around the topmost part of Kiushu Island. 

I did not avail myself of the opportunity of crossing 
over to Korea VN^hich is easily done, as a steamer crosses 
over to this little State of Chosen, as it is now' called, each 
alternate day from Shimonoseki, a distance of 122 miles 
across the Tsushima Channel leading into the Japan Sea, 
where the great naval battle of the Russo-Jap war, because 
of Russia's persistence in holding Manchuria, was fought 
in 1905 when Admiral Togo met and destroyed Russia's 
Baltic fleet that had sailed so far to meet its foe and fate. 

This passage to Chosen, the little mountainous penin- 
sula which Japan eventually usurped from China, and 
which is presided over by a Japanese governor-general at 
Seoul, the capitol, takes ten hours and costs only twelve 
yen (or six dollars) for first class, with foreign food. 

The entrance to Nagasaki harbour is interesting and 
holds you spellbound in a survey of the unlimited Oriental 
watercrait seeking protection in the still waters separated 
from the heaving seas by long arms of piling and concrete 
and riprap breakwater, offset by numerous vari-colored 
lights and beacons that seemingly chase each other round 
the harbour as we steam by. 



^ 



JAPAN. 55 

Nagasaki is the oldest commercial port in Japan, and 
is said to be one of the prettiest in the Orient. 

It is enclosed by hills, the town partly climbing the 
Mils and is about the size of Memphis on the Mississippi. 

In rick-shaws we went out to see the big camphor trees. 

On Saturday, from three to five, our American consul 
to Nagasaki — Mr. Deichman of St. Louis, gave us a recep- 
tion, and we drove in rick-shaws to the consulate high up 
on the hill commanding a fine view of the city below. 

Upon being ushered in, we found a beautiful repast 
spread on two long tables, combining all kinds of American 
cakes and creams, tea aid punch, which was passed by 
little Japanese maids, the consul proving himself a merry 
bachelor host, and we all voted it a real home-like occasion 
for our homesick souls who had so recently spanned the 
abroad Pacific, over five thousand miles, exchanging our 
native shores for foreign ones. 

The next morning being Sunday, and Japanese reli- 
gion knows no Sunday, the mayor of Nagasaki tendered us 
a reception and entertainment in the way of Geisha danc- 
ing by a number of pretty young girls, on a broad stage, 
in a big theater which was open all round and in an en- 
closure. 

The mayor met us in the open, dressed in European 
garb with tall silk hat, and greeted us with a bone-break- 
ing hand grasp and we passed in and sat more than an 
hour watching these dainty Geisha . girls execute their re!- 
pertoire, which portrays vague, poetic pictures of the 
blossoming of flowers, blowing of the wind, varying to the 
dance of the fire-fles, etc., to wlerd music thumped on queer 
looking intruments, often accompanied by the musicians 
singing. '[ 

Of course, the graceful movement of the smiling girls 
in their little silk kimona and obi was charming but is apt 
to becom.e monotonous to foreigners. : 

After the performance tea and cake was served by 
little Japanese maids and snap-shots were taken, and I 
think ail wanted to stand by the mayor. 



56. 



WliIRL AROUND THE WORLD. 




JAPAN. 57 

One of the sights for us at this port, was the coaling 
of our ship, which had anchored out in the harbour. 

Here the low flat coal barges were rowed out to, and 
lining up, formed a platform on both sides of the big 
steamer, where about two hundred Japanese, men and 
wom.en^ — some women had' their babies strapped on their 
back — had erected a stage of ladders of bamboo poles, 
where one person was stationed on each rung all the way 
up to the third deck from the water, and the coal was 
passed in little matting baskets from the barges on the 
water, up thru all these hands to the deck where it was 
tossed in the bunkers, the last hand throwing the baskets 
back down to the fillers in the barges below, to again take 
up its endless chain. 

No one changes positions, but there is a chatter kept 
up all the time. 

Here these little people, black from the coal, worked 
from morning to midnight for two days like bees around a 
hive at the small sum of twenty-five cents a day, coaling 
a big ocean liner of 17,000 tons for its voyage around the 
world. , . • 

It was with reluctance we turned from this our last 
port and glimpse of Japan, and all night long as we steamed 
for the Yellow Sea, reflections of mountains, with Fuji, 
their sacred mount topping them all, green forests and 
tumbling waterfalls, quaint bridges, bronze Buddhas, gilded 
temples, Shinto shrines, flower and dwarf tree with aged 
trunsk blossoming without a green leaf, dainty little women 
and others that are immune to this appellation, chased 
each other thru my rocking sleep, and above all, the as- 
tounding number of children, making the population of fifty 
million on these little islands with no greater territory 
than, our state of California, and we with so much, but in 
times of hostilities nothing is dependable, so American 
territory for our Americans. 



58 " 



WHIRL AROUND THE WORLD. 




It 



59 



CHINA. . 

What a hypnotic influence the swish of the waters 
have on one, as you lay back in your deck chair and dream 
the hours away unmindful of the awful space belov/ and 
above deck tramping and conversation having lost all 
charm, you are cognizant only of the blue waves hurrying 
past until after two days you find the blue has turned to 
yellow and we suddenly discover we are indeed in the Yel- 
low Sea, which really is yellow on account of the muddy 
waters of the two rivers, the Yangtze Kiang and the Yel- 
low, running out into this body of water, and soon we draw 
up to an European city over here in the Orient. 

What a contrast to the fairy like little empire v/e have 
been studying for the last two weeks. 

This new style of architecture on a broad modern plan 
proved to be Esing Tau, a Chinese name (meaning "green 
island") applied to a German town, v/hich on investigating, 
find this Chinese port in Shantung province was ceded to 
the kaiser's possessions as indemnity for the lives of two 
German missionaries who had been sent to China, and 
now the Germans have leased surrounding territory the 
District of Kiao Chov/, and have developed in fifteen years, 
an astounding city on Kito Chow bay, all nev/ white and 
seemingly unstinted government buildings and hotels and 
business blocks, with broad boulevards everywhere, even 
extending into the Chinese quarter, for there are 35,000 
Chinese here, besides the 2,000 Europeans, not counting 
the German military force, the towxi being strongly forti- 
fied and under a German governor with an onward stride 
as was plainly visible, by the big buildings completed, with 
hundreds of Chinese working on mammoth constructions 
like ants. 

We drove out to the big German-Chinese High school, 
then building, which will cost a million marks ($250,000) 



60 



WHIRL AROUND THE WORLD. 



where important branches are taught instructing_the Chin- 
ese in science of the West. Then there is the big wharf- 
age, in fact, the whole water front is astir with bustle, 
connections with the interior of China to a certain limit 
being made by a railroad, of German capital, leading out 
from the quay to Tsi Manfu. 

A big dam is constructed for protecting the ships from 
the north storms. 

We noticed a floating dock and big crane, and even 
an apprentice school is established where the wharf Chin- 
ese lodge and receive instructions pertaining to this calling. 

There is also a special harbour for the Chinese junks 
that carry on a great traffic along the coast. 

There are three fine hotels, one called the Strand, 
which has a fine position overlooking the strand, or beach, 
where little bathing machines are dotted here and there 
over the yellow sweep which certainly appeals to lovers 
of the surf. 

This new acquirement of Germany on this far East 
coast has been called the "Brighton on China." 

We lunched at the Prince Heinrich Hotel on the sea, 
v^^here the big dining room was appropriately decorated, a 
merry German band made music while we were served by 
a dozen big tall Chinese, who whisked around the tables in 
a kind of a white nightshirt rig, with their long cues dang- 
ling dov\^n their back, almost to the floor even lengthened 
by loops of shoestrings, their forehead running far back 
on their head from shaving the scalp. 

We drove all afternoon in a beautiful v/ooded park, or 
forest or foothills, for the Pearl mountains rise back of 
this new and enterprising German city by the sea, over 
here in isolation on Chinese territory. Near the sea, but 
distant from the town are the quarters of the American 
Presbyterian Mission, where the missionaries from the 
province of Shantung come during the hot months for 
recreation. 

One thing we noticed was the great plots of young 
forestry set out at even distances, enuf to attract our in- 



CHINA. Q1 

quiry, where we learned that the timber had heretofore 
been cut off by the Chinese for fuel, without replacing, 
whereas the far-sighted German government has begun 
the afforestation with firs, acasia and other trees, with 
the result that China follows suit. 

Out on the sea again. 

The sniffle of the fresh salt breezes is certainly in- 
vigorating after an active exploration of an active city, and 
lazily gliding along on the bottomless surface has an al- 
lurement that is wonderfully uncontrollable. 

For two days we skimmed the Yellow Sea, this great 
Yellow Sea of the Far East, which is a receptacle for all 
China's filth and foulness, her whole surface being washed 
clear to the sea by the two great rivers, the Yangtze and 
the Yellow that begin their cleansing of this nation, that is 
yet a novice in sanitation, far back in the west up in the 
mountains, for this country, which is only one-third larger 
than the United States, has ' five times the population 
(433,000,000) is mountainous except the southeast portion 
which slopes off to the sea, which portion must surely pro- 
vide subsistence for the whole interior. 

Great mountain chains wall this empire, roving in all 
directions, one backbone — the Himalayas, meaning the 
"abode of snow," and the most elevated on our whole earth 
and rises back up from Thibet, a big dependency in south- 
'west China, topped by Mt. Everest, the highest in the 
world, more than twice as high as Pike's Peak, this range 
being imprenetrable as the average width is 180 miles. 

In the northwest is the Gobi Desert or "Sand Sea" 
which is a great waste as large as two-thirds across our 
States and as wide as Missouri, and this, along with the 
mountain 'districts rendered uninhabitable throws the vast 
population to the seaboard where the masses seemingly 
worm like ants and prey upon your sympathy when you 
realize their narrorw or denied opportunities and lack of 
the knowledge of progress. 

Coming out of the Yellovv Sea and thru the straits 
of Formosa rounding the east coast of China froiti latitude 



62 



WHIRL AROUND THE WORLD. 



thirty-eight (my home latitude) we dropt to latitude 
twenty-two, which would mean down as far as Havana 
on our side of the world and would be quite tropical, but 
on swinging into the harbour at the mouth of the Canton 
river, beholding Hong Kong, we experienced anything but 
tropical weather. 

The fog almost completely enveloped all surroundings, 
closing down on us at times excluding even near objects, 
and hung low during our entire stay, spoiling all hopes of 
panoramas which I'm sure would have left everlasting im- 
pressions of this port as Hong Kong is situated on Hong 
Kong Island a barren rocky mass that rises almost strate 
up out of the ocean to a height of from one to two thousand 
feet and the city begins at the water's edge in the harbour 
and rises up with it, forming a kind of circle round the 
harbour. 

The whole water front is bordered by a broad street 
back of which rise long rows of unique Chinese buildings 
of four stories with long rows of balconies in front of every 
floor^ all decorated with Chinese characters and painted in 
all colors, where I noticed blue predominated in all its faded 
and weather-beaten shades. 

Walls join unbroken for blocks, and these rise in 
tiers back of each other on and on and the whole city 
seems so congested as so many Chinese can live in one 
house. 

Our ship dropt anchor out in the harbour at this port, 
and we went ashore each morning in small tenders across 
the harbour which was so interesting because of the ani- 
mation of such a busy crowded harbour. 

I liked steaming around and thru the different water 
craft of all eras from primitive to modern, and at night 
when returning to our ship 'twas most fairy like in this 
haven — electric lights everywhere winking and blinking as 
they seemingly shifted positions, from big ocean liners to 
least of row boats, each assured of its safety (?) in maneu- 
vering in this maelstrom of floating vessels. 

We spent one day in riding over the city in double- 



CHINA. g3 

decked electric street cars which affords an unbroken view 
from the top deck, but the mist drenched atmosphere 
settled down over us and chased us below where we watched 
the near street traffic. 

Hong Kong is a British port having been ceded to 
Great Britain about seventy-two years ago, but there are 
only about eight thousand Europeans in the foreign quar- 
ter now which mean merchants and clerks (some are 
Americans) government officers, military and naval forces 
which makes practically two towns, as there are 300,000 
Chinese in the native quarter, but you can scarcely detect 
where one begins or quits off as there are Chinese in abun- 
dance everywhere. 

Of course, when visiting in the best stores we would 
meet richly clothed Chinese merchants, robed in silk and 
embroideries with little embroidered caps sitting on top of 
their sleek yellow foreheads bringing their rather bulging- 
eyes into greater prominence, but in the native quarter 
where the houses are three and four decks high and streets 
are narrow and irregular, as we found on being pulled thru 
them in Chinese rick-shaws, which are larger here than in 
Japan, all one Sunday, when a party of three of us women 
went out thru this native section to "services" at a little 
missionary where a few European teachers, both men and 
v/omen, wearing a despairing look, officiating as sponsors 
for little herds of Chinese children which accompanied 
them in bunches of about twenty and when I realized the 
m-aterial our sacrificing missionaries had to work on, I thot 
of wasted efforts and self-denial and deemed it more worthy 
to erect an "enlightenment" station ail along the Battery 
on Manhattan Point in New York City for the instruction 
of those herds of poor immigrants from all nations who are 
brot over here every day by the thousands (probably in 
some cases answering as ship ballast) and turned loose to 
wander at will, not knowing which way to turn and more 
often go adrift out of sheer bewilderment thru lack of di- 
rection or interest. 

On returning from this little church we walked along 
the congested streets, along thru the markets and little 



64 



WHIRL AROUND THE WORLD. 



i^ 




CHINA. 55 

shops which were all running open, the Chinese women sit- 
ting outside their doorways on little stools, with many 
dowdy embroidered children round them, sev/ing just as tho 
it wasn't Sunday, for outside the little missions China 
Icnows no Sunday. 

. . We passed rows and rows of little open shops, all with 
most of their stock hanging in the front and on the outside, 
with big signs suspended everywhere with grotesque char- 
acters al lover — I couldn't make any of them out. 

Soon it began to rain and we had to enter rick-shaws, 
there are always plenty available as they are perambulated 
up and down the streets, the "coolie" with quick searching 
eye always on the lookout for the small coin, the curtains 
were buttoned down tight all round and there I sat in this 
little coop, all the time wondering if my companions were 
following, for we were certainly among the natives and 
in the native quarter and could see only strate ahead and 
that not far, 'twas raining hard. 

I directed him to the Hong Kong Hotel — they can un- 
derstand the chief public places — then I fell to studying the 
poor coolie and noted tho he was human how like an animal 
he was, trotting along with his big bare feet that must 
measure fully six inches across the toes from long splatting 
streets, throwing out like horses hoofs. 

He was extremely tall and rawboned as so many are 
in China, tho I never have seen them of such large propor- 
tions in our states, and the muscles from long drawn on 
use made his calves bulge out like warts on a tree as they 
were bare to above the knees for they wear mostly just the 
trunks of a bathing suit of faded blue cotton cloth with a 
China-blue towel swung round their neck that wipes long 
and loud. 

I recognized these characteristic towels as soon as I 
saw them for I had bought a pair back in San Francisco 
for fifteen cents at Mrs. Wong San Yue Clemens, who is a 
sister of Mrs. Howard Gould, and who shocked their social 
prestige by marrying a Chinaman, and where they are liv- 
ing in a small house in Chinatown whose walls inside are 
shelved and filled to every inch with burnt relics, curiosities 



QQ WHIRL AROUND THE WORLD. 

and freaks of the fire by the recent earthquake in that city, 
which she and her big broad-chested, yellow-faced husband 
of the Celestial empire thru an original idea had excavated, 
unearthed and collected from the debris and arranged in 
museum form, the display protected by wire netting, where 
she, of too portly physique, offers for sale as you view these 
curios, the characteristic Chinese towels, carved sandalwood 
fans and photos of herself and her Oriental consort in Chin- 
ese dress. 

The freaks of the fire and the race alliance is worth 
your visit. 

But to get back again to real China and the coolie who 
pants and trots and grins, showing ghastly long teeth and 
great cavities where teeth have been, long high cheek bones, 
black coarse hair plaited and wound up with a shoe string 
in a knot that dangles beneath a little flat sundown of straw 
m.atting tied under the chin with another shoe string, look- 
ing the very essence of abjection, and for a mere pittance 
per day. 

Of course, the conditions of these human-animals of un- 
limited subjection is to be deplored and they drew forth 
worthy tips thru sympathy from the "Cleveland" voyagers. 

At length we reached the big Hong Kong Hotel — a huge 
stone structure with massive square columns arched to 
three balconies above and down near the wharf adjoining 
a long row of big stone stores where are kept the best things 
China has for sale, handsome silks such as no nation but 
China produces, yards and yards of the gleaming fabric 
draped for exhibition. ' 

All the better class of Chinese wear silk. 

Both men and women wear long silk pantaloons or 
trousers with knee length silk skirts, or long blouses over 
to one side, slitted at the lower sides like a shirt and worn 
on the outside — not the fanciful floral and multi-colored 
figures as characterize Japan, but heavy rich brocades, and 
really with this Oriental garb and shining black hair, the 
women appear quite charming in their conservatism. 

On returning to our steamer that evening we sav/ an- 
other side of Chijiese life — dozens of row boats or flat boats 



CHINA. 



67 




FaCK-SHAW TRAVEL, CHINA. 

— Photo by Underv/ood & Underwood. 



QQ WHIRL AROUND THE WORLD. 

or anything that would float were hugging all round our 
big steamer under the port holes of the kitchens, catching 
anything that was thrown out, in little improvised hoop nets 
attached to long poles, and with what swiftness they can 
throw these little nets down in the water and overtake 
pieces of garbage that has missed their boat and bring up 
a brine-soaked boiled potato or grapefruit rind or scraps of 
bread or meat and stow it away in a box in one end of the 
boat and when some of them thot they had reaped quite a 
harvest after standing shivering, half clad and wet from 
fog, suddenlj^ out of some one of these port holes would 
shoot a deluge of dishwater, or cuspidor cleansings or coffee- 
boiler rinsings, or even hot water (the cooks heedless of 
what damage they might do) the gust would most knock 
the poor Chinaman off his feet, and when he realized this 
flooding of his accumulated stores with the filthy flow might 
change the savoriness of it, he would storm and jabber 
away at his loss and if possible, wear a more hideous ex- 
pression. 

These poor wharf rats, sometimes women with chil- 
dren manning a boat of their own, never left the ship's 
sides until we turned round to leave the harbour. 

; We threw coins down to them from the high decks 
above but as they missed many of them in the polluted 
water, we wrapped them in white paper making them dis- 
cernible at greater depth, giving them a better- chance. 

At another point in the harbour these people live all 
their lives, with their plentitude of children, in these little 
dingy boats or sampans with a hooped covering only of mat- 
ting, where they are moored by the hundreds to the low 
sea wall at the foot of the city, where the scantily clad 
children run out and beg from the passers-by. 

There are too many of them in China to begin on to 
alleviate their condition. 

Probably under a Republican government with west- 
ern ideas substituting the old monarchical narrowness these 
sampan dwellers could be induced into the interior and given 
work. 

Railroads are badly needed to bring China's western 



CHINA. 



69 



half up to the east, or bring mountain and ocean in com- 
munication with each other and develope the great plains 
intervening. 

One especially high rocky mount in this port is called 
"The Peak," where the majority of the Europeans have 
their residences and is connected with the lower city with 
huge cables pulling small cars whose load limit was twenty 
passengers over the constructed track thru the wood and 
bramble mountain side, the ascent being alarmingly strate 
up and the cable swings free above the track on the dead 
pull, yards high. 

I looked back and shuddered at what might be the re- 
sult if something gave way — we would never stop until we 
had slipt into the sea. 

All along up this irregular mount are beautifully laid 
out places — lawns and parks with fine residences, walks and 
flowers. 

With a friend, I set out to walk round the mountain 
where a fine broad road has been cut out all round about 
midway up and reminded me of a former trip on the gov- 
ernment roads built round the mountains encircling Hot 
Springs, Arkansas, only these Hong Kong peaks are much 
higher and you have a broad water view every way you 
turn. 

But after a half day's walk rounding one curve after 
another, terminating often into a frenzied waterfall racing 
on to the sea below from a high up canyon where we stopt 
to rest on the benches placed in secluded little nooks, we 
found our efforts were futile and turned back, ail the time 
swinging midway betv/een the summit and the sea below. 

Anyone going to Hong Kong must never miss a leisure 
strolling survey of this peak. 

We came back down the steep cabled incline along past 
fine hotels and club houses of massive and substantial build, 
for these Chinese have found an everlasting industry in the 
quarrying of the rocks of this little mountainous island and 
they work with all patience by hand and pull great loads 
of this stone piled on two-wheeled carts, with long poles 
fore and aft to which as many as twenty Chinese hitch 



70 



WHIRL AROUND THE WOKLD. 



themselves with long ropes, ten to the fore and ten to the 
aft, dragging these burdens thru the streets to place of 
erection with a "boss" at the rear shouting and command- 
ing like they were so many lagging beasts. 

Often I stopt right in the street to watch them tug 
and pull at impossible loads of rock or sometimes household 
goods or freight from the wharfs, and wonder what life 
is to them — with their hard, weather-beaten, misdealt feat- 
ures, yellow to brown wrinkled faces, quick-shifting dark 
eyes and protruding teeth. 

There's no other race that has like teeth ; no care taken 
of them. 

Since seeing some of the conditions in China, I believe 
if our churches would compromise on the same amount ex- 
pended for missionary work, and aid these subjects by ship- 
ping horses and mules and improved machinery with in- 
structors, to deliver them from this menial labor and alle- 
viate their low thots that must surely acom.pany their voca- 
tion, the finer senses of heavenly consideration would fol- 
low with more faith and rapidity, than when upon hearing 
a discourse they must take up their menial labor again. 

Their peculiar modes of transporting passengers is cer- 
tainly original — for instance, I have seen a man pushing 
two women along on a wheeelbarrow, which I found is quite 
a common street portage. 

The barrow, void of sideboards, the v/omen sit on either 
side of the high shielded wheel with their feet upon the 
bar back of the wheel and their backs to the Chinese pro- 
peller who manipulates this odd passenger and freight cart 
with different shrugging of the shoulders to the handles, 
and where from excessive following, great lobes or humps, 
someteimes red and raw, again calloused, are worked up 
at the nape of the neck, himself steadying the possible tilt- 
ing of the barrow with both hands. 

Another way of freighting in their small way, is two 
huge baskets suspended from either end of a long pole 
across their shoulder ; in these baskets everything is carried 
— heavy vegeteables, laundry, packages, etc. 

Yet another way is in great baskets, or several large 



CHINA. Yl 

trays carried on their heads. 

Thus this race acts in the capacity of man and beast. 

Their speech is more like a chatter as they have no 
alphabet, each word is uttered by a single movement of their 
speech organs and also each word is represented by a single 
character as you can see by the long lines of narrow long 
sign boards dangling from their little shops in the narrow 
streets, which seem so meaningless to us, and are so highly 
colored that the whole lane looks more like a fancy bazaar. 

Their literary eminence is the gateway to the highest 
honors and offices of the state. 

These leanered peoples are generally followers of Con- 
fucius, the Chinese sage and the founder of Confucianism 
which is the chief religion of China, treating on the duties 
of man in this world to his feilowmen, but seemingly hav- 
ing no god. 

Yuan Shi Kai who was president during the short 
period that China was a republic recently, advocated Con- 
fucianism same as former monarchs and hoped to establish 
it as a state religion ; he directed it to be taught in the 
schools fearing ancient customs and morals would die out; 
of course, Christians and other religious orders protested, 
but this conservative Chinese disposition is almost immov- 
able. 

But Buddha, as in Japan, is the god of the greater 
masses and there are many tem.ples and pagodas (meaning 
^'idoj temples") in China, and some of them are works of 
architectural art. 

Mohammedanism claims precedence in the western 
parts. 

French Catholics are prominent in mission work, but 
the foreign church in Hong Kong is Union, 

With all of our American missionaries, and the Euro- 
pean missionaries supported by half a hundred societies of 
all denominations up to the "Boxer" uprising in 1900 when 
so many martyrs were made of our missionaries while 
pressing their cause in the interior and remote quarters of 
old Cathay, in addition to many native converts, the number 
of redeemers in the field would have to be multiplied many 



72 



WHIKL AROUND THE WORLD. 



fold and ages added, to warrant changed conditions in these 
twenty provinces of four hundred million peoples' love of 
unchanged traditions, and where progress is distasteful and 
contrary to education. 

The China Inland Mission of London, with a branch 
office in Toronto, (Church street) lost heaviest of any of 
the societies, as more than fifty of their messengers were 
murdered or destroyed during this crisis, and records of 
the conduct of certain troops in Pekin led to the wells being 
choked with women who had committed suicide. 

And while this mission warns us that a million a 
month die in China without God, it is asserted that a firm 
in Birmingham, England, makes money manufacturing 
idols for China. 

And idols there are ; they greet you everywhere. 

We were to have gone up to Canton, about eighty 
miles up the Pearl river from the sea, on a river steamer, 
but one section of our party had gone up the day before 
and on returning to Hong Kong that night the steamer got 
stuck on a sand bar and had to wait till daylight to push 
off, so in order to not lose a day our remaining party went 
up on a special train. 

The carriages or coaches are small and of compartment 
design with narrow vestibule running full length of one 
side, and entered from the side as are all the carriages on 
the Eastern Hemisphere. 

We ran along the river bank with scenes of different 
vessels and barges with cargoes plying on the river on one 
side, and a succession of pagodas, rice fields and tea crops 
interspersed with truck patches which were all at the very 
best stage on the other side until we rolled into the gates 
at Canton and found we were inside this walled city of one 
million Chinese — the real Chinese city. 

This wall is twenty-five feet high and twenty feet thick 
and has sixteen gates with two water gates which are closed 
at night for protection. 

On leaving the train our mode of sight-seeing in this 
conservative town was the sedan chair, a dandy little square 
doll house where we crawl in feet and all, and lay back in 



CHINA. 73 

the chair seat just room enuf for one. 

It has a roof and windows in the side and is attached 
to two long poles of fifteen feet or more in length which 
are supported on the shoulders of three coolies who walk 
inside the poles. 

My, what a sensation, as I stept into this little house 
and sat down and all was elevated on the shoulders of these 
tall, gaunt men who walked off with a long camel stride 
leaving me to bob up and down, as the weight of the little 
house and myself swung in the center caused elasticity of 
the poles and as winging motion ; but I enjoyed it, of course, 
as when looking at the pictures years ago in the old geo- 
graphy I thot such existed only on paper, and now I was 
ensconced in a real live one and traveling right along in 
foreign lands. 

Along thru the little narrow streets I rode like a queen 
for I had never been accustomed to servants like this be- 
fore, three carriers for one person, and I took considerable 
pride in my dignity, looking from right to left, for we must 
grasp the situation quickly as we never repeat on anj:^ of 
our trips unless an independent day is scheduled. 

We pause occaionally to watch the numerous Chinese 
swarm up and down the little narrow sidewalks or middle 
of the street, for there was only room for one chair between 
the sidewalks, and when they would stop and bunch up to 
gaze at us the passage was blockaded and a halt was made; 
when a curve ws rounded the coolies all shout a jabbering 
warning which is passed back along the line for fear of 
punching the eyes out of some unsuspecting pedestrian with 
the ends of the poles. 

We stopt to watch the various small hand industries, 
small but when all assem.bled together from all over this 
populous country means a great export : toothbrushes, ivory 
carving, carved sandalwood fans and many beautiful things 
are wrot out back in these little dark shops with their open 
fronts. 

In sonie cases the roofs of these houses all but com^e 
together across the street, as we found out soon after start- 
ing thru the city, when a drenching rain poured on us from 



74 



WHIRL AROUND THE WORLD. 



the roofs of both sides of the streets which would have 
drowned us were it not for the roofs of our little cages. 

For nearly half an hour we endured this watery down- 
fall thru long unbroken, narrow streets and crowded side- 
■waiks full of long sign boards and posts and projections 
of all kinds, but we did not halt; there was no place to stop 
without blockading the street, as we were sheltered and the 
coolies didn't mind getting wet as they just had on little 
cotton trunks and the customary sweat mop around their 
necks and a big stiff round umbrella-looking hat of bamboo 
splints, leaving their long yellow backs and big brawny 
legs and feet exposed — but later in the day the tempera- 
ture fell and the poor things shivered in the chilling winds, 
as we traveled over to the Island of Shameen, where are the 
American, British and French concessions. 

This foreign district is completely surrounded by water 
— the river and canals make a network thru the city, the 
foreign district being connected with the native quarter 
by bridges which are well guarded ; as think of an outbreak, 
or mutiny of a million natives against so few foreigners 
way up here eighty miles in the interior. 

This European settlement is certainly attractive in 
buildings and grounds, some of them quite handsome, front- 
ing on a beautiful broad white boulevard. 

We turned to the river and found it, like the canals, 
full of vessels of every make down to just anything that 
would float, the most prominent being the sampan, a small 
flat boat with hood top of bamboo or Chinese matting, or 
old clothing or runsty tin. 

They are rowed by hand, and along up here in Canton 
where things are more typical Chinese, this innumerable 
string of house-boats moored along the banks are called the 
"floating city," and adds that thousands of its inhabitants 
are born, and live and die in these little watery homes, 
which look cold and dreary, the mother sitting in there 
with all numbers of little half-clad children with hair like 
bristles in a paintbrush all round her. 

They thrive or just exist on so little — short sticks of 
sweet cane tied in little bundles are bought and sold among 



CHINA. Y5 

these sampan dwellers, and things of like character, just 
mere nothings coupled with beggings. 

Along the streets in the shops, hanging in the open win- 
dows for sale, I saw with my own eyes, whole chickens, 
boiled, that had never been drawn — they said it added to 
the savoriness. 

Hanging on other hooks were entrails, minus the giz- 
zard and liver for sale — little strings of all manner of sus- 
picious stuff. 

Oh, I believe the Chinaman will eat anything — whole 
pigs lay roasted without an incision made in them ; I didn't 
see any rats in the face, but some of the things offered 
could have easily passed for them along with the little tails 
and dried strips of bacon rinds all suspended on strings 
waiting for customers. 

The Chinese boil all their cooking, and everything in 
the same pot; one can pick most anything out of their 
"chop suey" their chief dish, as I have eaten it on many 
occasions in different parts of the world. 

Another dish, and one that is carried along the streets 
all hours in the day, on little shelved tables swung on the 
ends of a pole across the Chinaman's back, where he sets 
it down on finding a customer and administers to his wants 
right then and there, is boiled macaroni with a little soup 
poured over it. 

I, with a lady companion, was returning from a park 
in rick-shaws when our coolies spied one of these portable 
retaurants and turning to us, placed their hands on their 
lank-looking stomachs and begged for money; we motioned 
frantically for them to proceed, but what did those unde- 
pendable fellows do but drop our shafts right there in the 
middle of the street while they ate two bowls each of this 
macaroni with their chop sticks, dragging it in a never- 
ending stream from bowl to mouth with an attitude more 
of a nervous hungry hound than a human. 

Of course, helpless, we took the amusing side of the 
situation, for they are like the balky horse. 

When a large number of native workmen are engaged 
on a big construction or other buildings, an out-door res- 



yg WHIRL AROUND THE WORLD 

taurant is set up in the grounds near, consisting of twenty 
or more long low tables with low benches on either side 
where these little bov/ls of soup and "stuff" mingled with 
the flying dust and dirt are served to the workmen at 
meager figures, or any one who wishes to partake. 

The bird-nests that they are accredited with eating, 
or in making birds nest soup, are really birds' nests, but 
not the kind we are accustomed to seeing, nor are they of 
seaweed which vv^as supposed on account of them being 
found along the coast and in caves around the islands south- 
east of China, but are the nests of a species of wiftlets that 
inhabit this island archipelago, and which is a formation 
of a mucilage-like secretion by certain glands of this bird 
and appears like fibrous isinglass, being a waxy white be- 
fore the eggs are laid, and at which stage they are most 
valuable for soups, used as a stimulant and tonic. 

It is said that this city of Canton alone imports more 
than eight million of these nests a year for her own use. 

Again, we have been taught that the feet of the girl 
babied are bound, so as to retard their growth, which is 
true, but not practiced to any extent now, if at all, but I 
saw several women whose feet had undergone this grue- 
some imposition at a helpless age, and now they wear the 
expression that they are the cynosure of all foreign scrutiny 
as once Hone it is irremediable. 

I examined one, and the natural shape of the foot is 
not there ; the toes and a part of the foot are comprest in 
a point, and the length of the foot is there in proportion, 
but the heel (sad thot of subjection to such deformity) is 
worked up in the limb or ankle portion and stands out like 
a joint ball at the back, and of course the toes, prest into 
the point, a little shoe of even five or six inches can be worn, 
but must have a two-inch heel for support. 

They look very dainty and doll-like until you see the 
hock at about three inches above the tiny shoes they wear, 
which are generally of ebroidered satins or brocades. 

No, the Chinese don't have small feet ; they wear small 
shoes because a part of their foot has been forced to grow 
up in the limb. 



CHINA. 



11 



Opium dens abound in this important city, in fact, it 
is the bane of the whole nation, and a problem. 

One of the chief plants cultivated in this country, be- 
sides the mulberry trees to provide food for the silk worms, 
and the tea plants and cotton plants, is the opium poppy, 
which accounts for these Chinee opium dens, where on visit- 
ing some of them, we saw from six to a dozen men, young 
and old, laying up on tables or benches all round the room, 
dulled as to any ones' presence, each one drawing on a long 
pipe that looks like a flute with an earthen bowl (some have 
more elaborate ones with yards of tubing attached) . 

This narotic that seems to allay all troubles, is made 
from this cultivated poppy by incisions made in the green 
heads after the bloom has fallen off, when a white juice 
exudes, which soon hardens and turns black, when it is 
scraped off and collected.^ 

The smoker takes a portion about the size of a pea, 
puts it in the bowl of the pipe and brings to the flame of 
the lamp, inhales, then repeats the process until intoxica- 
tion siezes him or is overcome with dreamy exhalation. 

China had become such a great producer of opium, cul- 
tivating vast acreage of the poppies, and this evil had 
gained such headway on the weak, that an edict was issued 
in 1907 that the production must be lessened one-tenth 
every year, which it is claimed to the surprise of all, it has 
been adhered to, expecting the one-tenth decrease each year 
of this huinan despoiler to vanish in the year 19J.7. 

Cereal, rice and rubber will take their just place in the 
poppy fields. 

After a time, we had to give up this interesting Chinese 
city and again taking the novel little sedan chair, each one 
carried along on the shoulders of three stalwart coolies, we 
were conveyed thru the streets and over canals across stair- 
step bridges, and it is remarkable how these fellows equal- 
ize these chairs and long poles on their shoulders in going 
up and downstairs to keep from tilting their passenger for- 
ward or backward or to one side, for there are many stairs 
in winding your way thru this city of a million and a half„ 

We were traveling along, single file, bound for the sta- 



7^ 



¥/HIRL AROUND THE ¥/ORLD. 



tion to take the train for Hong Kong when lo, we stopt — 
our chah's were lowered to the ground and there we sat; 
the unfaithful coolies had mutinied and refused to move 
on, and a jabbering and loud gabble accented by wild gesti- 
culations were directed toward us, as tho we understood 
— at any rate they didn't pick us up again, and we each 
crawled out and stood bemoaning our plight, when up 
rushed all kinds of rick-shaws (probably co-operative) and 
with more tipping we changed our mode of travel and 
finally reached the station, where we took the train, going 
back down this fertile valley, where the Chinaman and the 
ox, or the carabao plow loyally, knee deep in the mud day 
after day in the rice fields, entirely oblivious of the stren- 
uous restlessness of the outside world. 

We oiitlined the Pearl river that eventuallj^ merges into 
the Canton river which is so wide that it is more like a 
bay, as it opens out on the sea, where we crossed the strait 
to the island of Hong Kong and, taking one more turn 
round this city of the same name, we departed from shore 
in small tenders, crossed the harbour to our ship, where the 
strains of "Home, Sweet Home" or some other reminder 
of refuge, by the ship's band always met us as a welcome 
to come on board our floating palace that was to be our 
home while journeying round the whole world studying the 
inhabitants and customs and nations that go to make it up. 

We soon fell to our allotted quarters in the steamer 
and renewed acquaintances after the separation and excite- 
ment of a shore trip, familiarizing ourelves with an entirely 
different race each time, not forgetting to go to the top 
deck to take a final view and general survey of the harbour 
and the towering hills encircling, all dotted with gleaming, 
colored buildings, as we slowly drew out leaving the sam- 
pan dweller aghast at our majestic towering above them. 

One feature leaving a dent on my memory, was the 
patched sails to their big Chinese junks; this heavy lubber- 
some craft is of the crudest kind of workmenship and are 

used to transport the lower' kind of freighting and coal dis- 



CHINA. 79 

tribiiting in the harbour, manned by ten to twenty oarsmen 
when there's no breeze. 

These poor patched sails stretched up there as a target 
for the winds spoke loudly of cast off shirts and trousers 
of all hues and gunny sacks and matting, all joined just 
as they had been discarded and patched on in their original 
shapes. 



80 



PHILIPPINE ISLANDS. 



It took us two days to drop over to our Philippines 
across the sea. 

I'm sure we swept into Manila Bay as majestically as 
did Dewey in 1898 when he captured Manila (but with 
hardly the anxiety), since when, owing to United States 
occupation and world-wide activity in development, the har- 
bour is ranked with the finest in the world. 

Our steamer drew up to the dock and berthed. 

The wharf and big custom house, Pier No. 5, were 
decorated with fluttering American flags, and many peoples 
all drest in white (for we are getting down in the tropics 
here) came to meet us. 

Automobiles were awaiting us and we availed ourselves 
of them and was whisked round and thru the city and coun- 
try adjoining. 

For landscape viewing thi is alright; we traveled over 
the most perfect of roads where is a system of near two 
thouand miles of hard thorofare that excel our roads in 
Missouri, and the finest of bridges span the minor streams 
here, while our state is trying to see how many she can 
get along without. 

Manila is the capitol of Luzon the largest of our group 
of Philippine Islands and has a population of 270,000 or near 
the size of Denver. 

It just seems to be surrounded by water, with the bay 
on one side and the Pasig river on the other ; in fact, there 
is water all round here, and by the way, right here, just off 
the coast of Mindanao, one of this group of islands, is the 
deepest place yet found in the ocean, which is 32,000 feet, 
or six miles deep; then considering Mt. Everest, of the 



PHILIPPINE ISLANDS. 31 

Himalayas, towering 29,000 feet, or five and a half miles 
above the ocean, makes a range of eleven and a half miles 
between the bottom of the ocean and the top of the land, 
and these extremes only forty degrees longitude, distant 
from each other. 

You would be surprised at the beautiful buildings in 
Manila, and the finely laid out boulevards of liberal width 
— one of the main ones named Taft Avenue; then there 
is Malecon Drive, that I have never seen anything grander 
anywhere — broad thorofare encircling the bay hore, the 
waves sweeping and lapping near, with tropical palms weav- 
ing with the sea air. 

Out on this fine stretch and overlooking the historic 
Manila Bay, facing the New Luneta, where everyone gath- 
ers at night to listen to the music of the Constabulary band, 
is the imposing Manila Hotel, one of the finest (under Amer- 
ican management) in the Orient, built on broad lines with 
arcade surrounding, the breeze floating thru the spacious 
rotunda and the dining room 'mid palms certainly appeals 
to all tourists. 

This, and the big Elks club near, with the government 
and public buildings, show the rapid stride and staunchness 
of American development, and most all are designed on 
the mission order and savors of Spanih creamyness and red 
tiling and all combine sublimely with the lofty palms and 
long gaunt nude cocoanut trees that are likely to be stand- 
ing sentinel in the most unlocked for places. 

These islands that have so recently become our terri- 
tory thru Spain and America having met in a headon col- 
lision about sixteen years ago, are, altogether, no larger 
than our state of Nevada, yet what a variety of products 
they help us out on. 

There is Manila hemp for all our binding twines, there 
is sugar, and lastly, copra, which has reached one-fifth of 
all Philippine exports and is one of two score of products 
which the cocoanut palm produces and the most valuable, 

Gopra is the dried meat of the cocoanut; evereybody 
knows that up in the top of these long pole-like palm trees 
that grow only in the tropics, there is a tub full of cocoa- 



82 



WHIRL AROUND 'THE WORLD. 



nuts in their husks clustered fully 40 to 60 feet up in the 
air. and are green color until they brown at maturity, when 
they are gathered, and husks removed by striking on a 
spike fixed in the ground; the cocoanuts (whole, as 'we get 
them in the States) are then split in halves and dried until 
the kernel, or meat, shrinks away from the shell, when it 
is taken out, and with more drying, is shipt to all countries 
as "copra," where the oil is exprest and uesd in our country 
to make soaps, salves, lotions and candles — things that we 
use every day, yet never stop to think where they originate. 

This oil, in the islands, answers for butter and lard to 
the Philippines. 

It is said that the cocoanut tree could furnish every 
want of the native — food, clothing and shelter; the kernel 
used for food in various ways, and the oil as above; the 
fibrous coating inisde the husk is made into coco-matting 
and apparel, the coarse part into ropes ; the hard shell 
around the kernel is polished and made into cups and all 
kinds of utensils — as we saw when the natives came run- 
ning to the station to meet us with these nuts in their 
green state, when with a corn knife they whack off the 
top of the shell, sell to us for a song and we drink the coco 
milk and feel refreshed. 

The trunks are made into boats, also timber for their 
house construction — the huge leaves, or fronds, make the 
side walls by hanging many fronds together downward and 
fastening down with the stem ribs, with more layers on 
top of these after the manner of shingling and thatched 
closely it forms the roof, and by boring the tree a white 
liquor is obtained, which being distilled, is one of their 
drinks called "arack." 

We saw fronds being worked into articles of necessity 
by their patience, such as baskets, brooms, mats, sacks and 
traj^s. 

So one can see what an important part the cocoanut 
palm plays all round the world in the tropic and semi-tropic 
latitudes, and the account occupies noted space on the pages 
of the world's big ledger of commerce. 

We saw whole rafts of cocoanuts piled to almost sink- 



PHILIPPINE ISLANDS. 83 

ing on bamboo rafts being towed along the river banks by 
the natives ; never did I see so many cocoanuts in heaps — 
all with their husks off, ready to go in the hold of some big 
ocean freighter for the United States, 

These coco groves are more dense along the waters' 
edge than in the interior, tho they are scattered all thru the 
Philippines. 

I recall many varied scenes depicted along the coast by 
their numberless long slender, graceful, grayish white- 
ringed bodies rising to five and six stories in the air, topt 
off by their great feathery leaves, swaying and slapping at 
each other, making a crackling noise, and wierd outlines 
of huge wrecked feather dusters, as the briny breezes from 
the ocean floated in and flirted with them, creating a stir 
of excitement among them. 

They are the one feature most appealing to me — in 
fact, their tall, silent and lonely statelines-s stole my heart 
back in Hawaii and held it captive thruout the tropics until 
at Egypt I found to my dismay, they had vanished entirely; 
they had been replaced here by the date palm, and I was 
not to look upon them again during this round-the-world 
trip, for we were soon to rise to the hard woods of the 
north to latitude fifty or near. 

It is really novel to note whole villages of the typical 
Philippine houses — a square shack supported on bamboo 
poles six feet high up off the ground and not always at safe 
angles, the outside of the big leaves of the cocoapalm woven 
in a kind of fringe and overlapping, is held down by splints 
of bamboo, the roof heavy and bushy with nipa palm which 
is a kind of long grass that grows on the marshy coasts 
of the islands, is held securely on the cone of the very 
steep roofs by lattice weights of heavier bamboo; there 
are no chimneys as they make their fires for cooking, in 
pots. 

Large squares on the front of the houses are let down 
for viewing and air, as there are no windows, and I noticed 
the stock is kept under the house in many instances. 

Of course, this sort of constructed home will be here 
years and years, and may go on forever unless the United 



g4 WHIRL AROUND THE WORLD. 

States retracts and takes these islands over for good, as- 
suring our investors, and development worth the while. 

There seems to be a timidity about taking hold, espe- 
cially in the interior where the use of our improved methods 
and machinery, twice the product could be turned out, and 
at the same time instruct and uplift the natives, which all 
comes with our rapid-transit way of getting to the core of 
things. 

The scientists pride themselves on their medical or 
laboratory research and there is a fine hospital, and drilling 
of artesian wells for better water, and ail the improvements 
and good accomplished everywhere smacks of sanitation. 

Lepers have been segregated, of which there are near 
four thousand. 

Our president appoints a governor general for these is- 
lands, whose salary is $13,000 a year, and two houses form 
the government same as our own, and Manila is the seat. 

The lower house is composed of members elected by 
the different provinces who can qualify and the upper house 
— called the commission is composed of the governor gen- 
eral and eight commissioners, also appointed by our pres- 
ident, five of whom are Filipinos and four Americans, giv- 
ing the natives the majority. 

One sees everything on the streets of Manila, and the 
contrasts, ertremes and queer habits or customs are a 
kaleidoscopic memory that will glowingly remain with the 
traveler, even after a trip around the world. 

This being a port of call for all thru steamers there 
is generally a mixture of all the races in the world on the 
streets busy, coming and going, from the most modern 
dress to the native with no dress at all. 

The swift automobile dashes by the clumsy and slow 
carabao, the heavy shapeless black mass sometimes called 
water-buffalo, with two great horns curving back over his 
neck, which is the beast of burden thru all the Orient — 
pulling great loads thru the streets or sogging knee-deep 
in the mud and water of the rice fields dragging a stick 
plow, yet he is on a basis with the human, for the native is 



PHILIPPINE ISLANDS. 



85 




86 



WHIRL AROITND THE WORLD. 



up to his knees in the filthy fertilized sloppy field pushing 
the plow. 

The street car. outruns the little native two-wheeled 
passenger cart ; huge concrete structures stand congenially 
by the side of the nipa shacks, there is a lazy Spanish store 
by the side of one with the click of dozens of typewriters. 

The old or Spanish part of the city still retains its 
walls but is no longer surrounded by the moat that plays 
such a cautious part in these monarchical nations on the 
dark side of the world, as under sanitation, this mosquito 
breeding stagnant water has given way to an expanse of 
green and adds a park that is one of the features that has 
stamped Manila the "Pearl of the Orient." 

We went thru the narrow streets past the shuttered 
and iron balconied windows and closed doors of the Spanish 
homes that seem as impenetrable as a tomb — ^nary a glimpse 
"to be obtained by the curious. 

What a contrast to the other side — our way of "open 
house" on broad lines, with freedom, seeming willing pat- 
terns for the whole world. 

But after all there is a fascinating dreamy laziness 
about the sunlit creamy walls, if conservative, and the 
pathetic expressions of the natives a they languish under 
their daily labors or wither under the banana trees in this 
tropical clime. 

■ The best of our Filipino men wear white European 
suits, and some are quite handsome with pleasing features, 
tho yellow to brown skin, brown eyes and strate black hair, 
almost bristly ; but the more primitive wear a strip of cloth 
encircling their brown hides, or simply a pair of thigh 
breeches. 

The women wear circular skirts sweeping full, trailing 
out on the ground, when in walking, they gather them wp 
in front showing their bare feet; no difference how nicely 
they are dressed their brown feet are undressed ; their garbs 
are two-piece, the full skirt with fuller flounce of loud fig- 
ures, and very, very thin stiff waist of pina cloth, which 
is their chief manufactured cloth, made with large sleeves 



PHILIPPINE! ISLANDS. g7 

that stand out stiffly, no difference what other fashions are 
theirs is set; these waists often lack some inches of meet- 
ing the skirt-band, and are topt off by a folded fichu stand- 
ing high away from the neck, framing often a good looking 
plump brown face. 

Out in the poorer quarters, and in the interior, dressing 
at all is scant. 

We visited the schools where the young girls embroider^ 
one of the chief arts is the "chicken embroidery," which 
ia quite high priced, and loads of this finished work was 
brot down to pier No. 5 and spread out in the huge ware 
rooms and many were the pieces sold to their American 
.sisters. 

One whole afternoon was spent on the scenic Pasig 
river in steam launches fired by coal, the little brown na- 
tives made black from the soot, engineering the launches 
like water rats. 

Up this river is where we get our feast of real every- 
day life of the natives; the nipa-palm shacks standing out 
in the water on bamboo stilts, the fringe of the drooping 
palm leaves that weatherboards the house hanging down 
all round most to the waters edge, the front half wall dropt 
down, the natives hanging out of these openings all along 
the river bank to watch the boat loads of "white folks" go 
by; others tramping along the pathway, women barefooted 
carrying great baskets on their heads ; children, some nude, 
others with only a little white shirt for covering and it 
not connected anywhere; the big lazy black carabao or 
water buffalo wallowing around in the water near the banks 
in droves; when not in use plowing rice they stand in the 
water all submerged but their head and horns for it is so 
warm. 

Then comes long lines of rice fields, banana plantations 
with their big leaves flapping like elephant ears, great 
growths of. vegetation of every green hue adorning the 
banks as we sped on past old Spanish residence that at 
some time had housed beautiful river dreamers, for along 
up here the river become clear and placid, curving on easy 
lines, each bend opening more picturesque than the preced- 



go WHIRL AROUND THE WORLD. 

ing. and boating savors of Utopia; to take a trip up here 
once, creates a longiirg to take another. 

Th^re are a number of churches of Spanish design 
scattered over the interior (for Catholicism is the religion) 
and some are old and musty but interesting. 

We landed and gazed at the primitive, strange tropical 
surroundings, out over the little fields of unaccustomed 
foliages, far on over Spanish and Filippine merger until I 
spied a great flaming sign bespeaking American invasion 
— exploiting one of our big oil trusts. 

The unfamiliarity of the place vanished, and we fled 
to our places in the boat and steamed back down the river 
under the new steel bridge and on to the lower bridge, 
which is the old Spanish bridge— almost 300 years old — 
a great arched bridge of massive stone still used for span- 
ning this breach of water, where, v/hen we had got down 
to it we found another boat load awaiting us, their boat 
being unable to pass under the arches on account of the 
strong tide from the sea rushing the water back up and 
shutting off passage of oversized launches, since we had 
gone up at noon, r-nd they signaled us their dictress and 
we had to take them on our launch which was smaller, and 
we slipt under the arch and out into the rough tidal water 
that was so forceful that every moment was one of terror, 
as the boat, with its double capacitj^ dipt and swayed, fling- 
ing the spray in our faces, as we all but by a hair's breath 
stayed on top the water as the boat tilted and lumbered 
thru the surging tidal current that had grown almost to 
waves as we neared the mouth and out into the bay where 
our steamer was anchored. 

What a risk we had run, not daring to draw our 
breath, even to condemn the natives for their misjudgment 
in overloading even to endangering our lives, but what a 
joyous relief when we climbed up the side of our own big 
steady ship that had never given us cause for alarm only 
o:^x-e when buffeting the wavers back in the Pacific. 

Vve visited Fort Wm. McKinley that stands near Manila 
on a high knoll ; this is one of the largest forts in the world 

is at the end of a beautiful macadamed, dustless road, 



PHILIPPINE ISLANDS. 




ON THE PASIG RIVER. 

— Photo by Underwood & Underwood. 



OA WHIRL AROUND THE WORLD. 

which road was built by our United States troops, and we 
looiced back over the panorama of this little "brown" city, 
one-half of which is so active, the other lethargic, lying 
over here on this little island at the mouth of the Pasig 
river, like a crocodile, basking in the sun, all surrounded 
by cocoanuts and bamboo with the mighty Pacific swirling 
all round and lapping its feet. 

Our soldier boys, of which there are three thousand, 
seemed glad to see us; some of them are tanned until 
scarcely distinguishable from the natives. 

The natives, to a degree, prove to be fine specimens 
of manhood under American domination and are proud to 
be a subject of Uncle Sam. 

They drive a big seven-passenger touring car with as 
much complacency, as they did a carabao fifteen years ago, 
and can't help showing their pride at the long step. 

In the big customs ofhce on the wharf adjacent to our 
ship were great loads of Manila hats for both men and 
women brot down by the natives for sale to their kin across 
the water, and our American passengers proved congenial 
patrons, which would send a smile across their "Filipino 
brown" faces. 

We left Manila at four o'clock in the afternoon and at 
that hour, it seeming a kind of holiday for the Americans 
in the islands to see such an assemblage of peoples from 
their home country, that the pier was simply alive with 
spectators who had come down to bid us "bon voyage" and 
adieu, making a tropical scene as they were all, both raen 
and women, clrest in white. 

So, out on the sea- we swept again, this time for a 
stretch of sixteen hundred miles almost due south, to a 
point seven degrees below the equator necessitating a sail 
of five days and nights, for this big steamer knows no stops 
once started, and we plow along in the silent night so lone- 
somely and stealthily, as tho someone might detect us, 
when really we are miles and miles from any object at all. 

During this drop of twenty-one degrees thru this 
equatorial sea, my reverie ran back to our little brown peo- 
ples that know no other world save their little nipa thatched 



PHILIPPINE ISLANDS. 9|^ 

homes that stand out on the water's edge, and the cascos^ 
which is a big lumbersome cargo craft, lying four deep along 
the banks of the Pasig, roofed over with straw matting 
like a prairie schooner, under which lives the water families, 
and there are thousands of boat-house dwellers that never 
knew a land home ; and equally as attractive — for all are 
original — is the "banca," a kind of canoe scooped out of a 
tree trunk and covered with a little bamboo awning; just 
a succession of cocoanuts and carabaos, of bamboo and 
bananas and cascos and bancas that quite bewilders an 
American that leads a prosaic life on the edge of the Ozarks 
in Missouri. 

We steamed on, the China Sea running smooth as glass, 
or like a great lake of ice, or shimmering in the sun as 
tho heavy with oil — no wavelets visible during the whole 
five days sail on this silvery equatorial sea. 

What a delightful sensation, compared to the forceful 
shifting swells of the mighty Pacific ; and how the waters 
do change; from the deep dark mysterious blue of the Pa- 
cific to a brilliant clear blue with white pearls bubbling 
all over the restless, rippling surface at Hawaii. 

At Japan the whole world seemed to reflect green, 
changing to a darker shade thru the Inland Sea, due to 
the shadows of the surrounding frowning mountains, while 
we actually sailed on yellow water in the Yellow Sea, caused 
by the two great rivers of China depositing their wash of 
yellow mud from the inland, where pursuing, we changed 
from this after passing the Island of Formosa, to the mercu- 
rial waters of the China Sea, cruising along the northwest 
coast of Borneo, crossing the equator and on to seven de- 
grees below to the Island of Java. 



92 



JAVA. 



I have always heard of Java coffee, and that it came 
from Java; but of ali the places I never expected to see — 
Java was one of them ; and now I'm to really visit Java. 

We have been traveling south since away back up at 
Tsingtau on Kia Chow Bay, in latitude 36 (just two de- 
grees below my home latitude) where it snows and blows 
all the time (just like it does at tiome) till now we have 
dropt down forty-two degrees, or 2,600 miles without mak- 
ing any perceptible westAvard, or round-the-world progress 
— one must know latitude and longitude who would know 
the world, else how can one study the zones, climates and 
customs, or locate ones self; the ship's officers thoroly 
familiarize themselves with these things and charts and 
maps are posted in various parts of the ship with tiny flags 
stuck on to indicate our bearings and the route of our pro- 
ceedure. 

In crossing the equator the ship's company observes a 
kind of innetiation ceremony — "Triton" the sea god, en 
masque, and his retinue com.es on board and declares every 
person shall be baptized of his dirt of the North Hemi- 
sphere becoming a fit subject to enter the South, or the 
"Kingdom of Neptune." 

Thus the equator draws the line between the north and 
south seas, so accordingly the big bathing tank was set up 
on deck, the big informal deck under the promenade deck, 
where we all liked to gather to relax dignity, then the men 
were brought out (just those who wished to participate, 
passengers and members also of the crew, but I think some 
were drawn in who didn't wish to be "cleansed") one at a 
time, set up on a bar, and these masqued fellows lathered 
their face from a big tub of foam and barbered with a corn- 
knife, doused pounds of flour for talcum all over them, then 



JAVA. 93 

they are thrown backward into the pool, where the await- 
ing attendants ducked them under the water three times 
without giving them a chance to blow, then stuck them 
head first in a long tube made of canvas and they were 
compelled to crawl thru this, wet, twenty feet to the end, 
for they couldn't turn round in it; it was certainly laugh- 
able to see two victims scramble thru this tube at once, 
one behind the other and prodded if you lagged. 

They were a little more lenient with the ladies; all 
the unsuspecting ones were on deck and the masquers slipt 
round and locked the cabin doors, cutting off all escape, 
then turned the hose on, shooting the water all over the 
deck, until every one of us looked like drowned rats, shriek- 
ing and screeching with streaming hair, seeking a place of 
refuge, but none to be found. 

Altogether 'twas an exciting celebration ; then the 
decks were all cleared and the clamour hushed. 

We had special music at the evening dinner and the 
menu consisted of all kinds of sea foods, and each person 
received a certificate of passport to the Southern Sphere 
accompanied by a new name — myself hereafter to be known 
as "Nercida" — which certificate I brought home to be 
framed as 'tis not allotted the majority of our peoples to 
cross the equator even once in a lifetime. 

After our southern sea voyage, we ran into the islands 
called the East Indies, to Java, the chief of the Dutch, or 
Hollands' colonial possessions and is no larger than our 
state of Louisiana, yet it has a population of thirty-five 
million — more than one-third of the United States; think 
of six hundred peoples to every square mile ; no wonder 
the little black fellows bob up everywhere, the long grasses 
seem to be full of them. 

Java's railroads are limited, of course, for most every 
town can be reached by coast boats. 

It has mountains rising almost as high as Pike'^ Peak, 
and the natives resort to irrigation from the streams, yet 
oppression seemingly abounds. 

This little island belonging to Queen Wilhelmina of 
The Netherlands, lies down here below the equator off the 



94 



WHIRL ABOUND THE WORLD. 



beaten track of general traffic, but having once viewed its 
tropical growth, a profusion that I never saw any where 
round the world, you beget a longing to return and prom- 
enade the handsome boulevards with the lofty trees tower- 
ing above, almost to excluding all ray of sunlight, and the 
world seems to close in around you and a sense of isolation 
steals over you, realizing unfamiliarity with the language 
and customs which renders the solitude even more complete. 

On coming into this harbour, our steamer anchored out 
and we took to a coastal steamer and landed at Batavia, 
which is the principal city and the capitol of all the Dutch 
East Indies. A governor general rules over all of Hol- 
land's possessions in this archipelago. 

The warehouses and general exporting traffic is in the 
old town which has long been built on the low marshy plain 
by the sea, and has canals running all thru it, and is the 
outlet or gateway for ail the island's surplus goods going 
out and others shipping in. 

Java coffee, sugar and rice are the main exports, and 
this Malay race of little brownish peoples, with long thick 
black hair and pleasant faces work so patiently for Holland's 
welfare for such small remuneration. 

But being permitted to even live on this little Garden 
of Eden, so fertile, so prolific and inhale the seductive odor 
of the palms and the feathery bamboo as they wave languor- 
ously in the dreamy tropical sun, exuding a fragrance per- 
mieting the whole atmosphere, is intoxicating enough with- 
out further compensation. 

Up from the swampy lowland lies Batavia proper, with 
good mercantile buildings — substantial and of European 
architecture, and this merges into the beautiful city of 
Weltevreden, where for sight-seeing we climbed into a little 
clos-a-dos, which is the native carriage, and is about the 
most amusing conveyance we had met with, just a little 
two-wheeled canopied cart with an elevated single wide 
bench covered with a mat, answered for both driver and 
passenger, the Javanese sat with his face to the front, 
while we sat on the same seat with our backs to him — 
two of us — with our feet dangling out the back flapping any- 



JAVA. 95 

way but gi'acefuliy while we were trying to balance our- 
selves and view the sights at the same time, as the driver 
whipt and lashed the tiny pony which was not even as 
large as a Shetland, and very thin, tho they say they are 
very strong; at any rate we rattled and trundled along, 
switching curves, over cobblestones, jumping unexpected 
indentures with nary a care only that we were enjoying a 
foreign country in a native way. 

After miles of driving, the most beautiful was under 
rare majestic shade trees which seemed to meet at the top, 
lighted all over with brilliant orange-red blossoms that 
makes the boulevard look on fire and from behind handsome 
residences with long white columns, also public buildings 
with fine lawns come into view, and the contrast is marked, 
attractive and characteristic of the tropics. 

We visited the splendid museum, and then "dos-a- 
dosed" over to the Hotel der Nederlanden (that's Dutch) 
for luncheon, where we spent the afternoon roaming thru 
the quaint spacious salons and into the picturesque court 
beyond, which needed no roof other than the thick shade 
of the tall trees which towered stories above and made a 
perfect bower under which I listlessly lounged in the com- 
modious chairs on the continuous piazza surrounding, lost 
in fanciful meditation on the alluring charm of this minute 
fragment of isolation over here in the Indian Ocean floating 
almost to the sinking point under its heavy growth of trop- 
ical plants, palms and trees. 

I had often wondered "why Java?" in looking over my 
itinerary as I couldn't attach anything of import to this 
supposed little barren almost unknown island of my "geo- 
graphy"days , but I think differently now and wonder why 
it isn't overrun with tourists of idyllic temperament. 

Another day we boarded a special train, and they are 
very fine little carriages — all partitions and disconnected 
seats, round, up and thru the dense forestry, the little 
snorting engine took us, forty miles in the interior to Buit- 
enzorg (which means "without care") which is a favorite 
residence town ; a fine palace for the governor general is 
here, and the celebrated Botanical Gardens in which are 



96 



WHIRL AROUND THE WORLD. 



the finest specimens of scientific tropical plants in the 
world. 

I had no more than passed inside and started down 
the broad dark shady walk, when on looking up and strate 
ahead thru the long beautiful avenue, I was awed by the 
appalling height of the trees, bare of limb till at the ex- 
treme top great branches spread gracefully, commingling 
above, and birds were singing in foreign tones and tunes 
as in an aviary ; at the base of these trees flowering para- 
sitic vines wind in a mass round their trunks reaching up 
into the branches all aglow with reddish blossoms. 

From this unparalleled walk we passed along thru or- 
chid-bearing trees — orchids are parasitic and abound here. 

All the beautiful things abound here. 

I'm sure half of our peoples in the United States do 
not know that these beauty spots exist over in the dark 
countries and those peoples are not given the credit due 
them as beautifisrs of landscape and supporters of the fine 
arts ; when I got back to New York in August, Central Park 
seemed like a dried hayfield in comparison. 

We walked on down thru terraced ways outlining all 
species of palms, into the vale belov/ where rushed a srnail 
stream winding in double curves spanned by several bridges 
which we crossed, ascending on the other side to the tea 
gardens and the' coffee trees, where grows the big Java 
coffee on tall trees with large thick shiny leaves ; of course, 
these were specimen trees in this Botanical Garden ; we 
came upon long stretches of cassava, which is a shrub rang- 
ing six feet high, cultivated, roots are grated and under 
powerful pressure, exudes juice, which when settled, the 
flour or starch remaining is formed into cakes and baked 
on a hot plate and we get it imported to our country as — 
tapioca. 

Then set in the rubber trees; tall, spindling, round 
with rings, with clusters of leaves near the top; these are 
set out at certain distances apart and make a pretty grove ; 
during their young years, tea plants are interspersed, to 
utilize all the land waste. 

A space is scraped off each rubber plant and a number 



JAVA. 97 

is stamped, and at certain times they are tapped .at about 
eighteen inches from the bottom where tin dippers are set 
under to catch the sap which is then dried in the sun or 
baked over a tire, forming the crude rubber we import, 
when after Americanizing, we wear rubber boots, also 
^Vear" automobile tire. 

Large banana trees came next as specimens in this 
garden ; and we saw them in all stages, flowering, green and 
ripe, but the fruit is very small, sweet and compact and 
often are red color, and are called fmger bananas ; they are 
not the big coarse meate'd variety we get in the States from 
our tropics. 

We returned, pronouncing these Gardens a symphony 
of the rarest of the tropics. 

We lunched at the Harmonic Club where the natives 
waited on the tables, and they seemed almost at sea at our 
American demands. 

The streets in these cities are sprinkled by the natives 
carrying two big sprinkling pots attached to either end of 
a yoke across their shoulders as they walk along tilting 
them forward for sprinkling; the roads are hard and white 
and they are soon in fine condition ; the laborers wearing 
only a strip of cloth wound around their loins. 

Another idea is the portable restaurant that the na- 
tives carry around on their backs — two long baskets that 
hang almost to the ground, with shelves and little boxes 
and cans and dishes and native fruit and kindling wood 
suspended from either end of the yoke, and they parade 
the streets with these until a customer comes along when 
they set their little restaurant down and make a meal for 
him. 

The buildings all show the quaint old architecture of 
the Dutch country with its very steep roofs — but in the 
country, the nipa villages were more interesting; it is won- 
derful what a part the nipa grass and palm leaves with 
bamboo splints play in these old countries, yet today, and 
will for ages to come, especially in the interior, toward 
providing habitation for the majorit]^ of the population of 



WHIRL AROUND IHS WORLD. 





JAVANESE STREET SPRINKLER—BATAVIA, JAVA. 

— Photo by Underwood & Underwood. 



• JAVA. 99 

most of these dark nations; these villages are neat, with 
their thatched shacks trimmed squarely off all round, and 
the narrow streets are clean ; these villages are more than 
a picture. 

It was a common sight to see a number of children 
playing on top of these grass roofs, looking like monkeys 
hopping about with no other article of clothing on save 
a little bead chain around their bodies and with their bright 
eyes they smilingly stare at you in all innocence. 

All along, they came down to the track to see our train 
pass their little brown plump bodies shining as tho polished. 

But our time was up, and we had to say good-by to 
these smiling Javanse — a little brown army of their own, 
on a little island, but, under the diction of Holland, they 
have wrought an imaginery isle. 

We went back to our coastal steamer to meet our ship 
standing out at sea. 

It was night, and as we drew away, I looked back at 
the receding shore line until the last object discernible 
was the tail gaunt cocoanut trees standing in all solemnity, 
at the water's edge seemingly reaching out and beckoning 
a parting signal until lost in the distance and darkness as 
we sped on in the inky stillness over the deep mystic swells. 



100 



WHIRL AROUND THE WORLD. 




PORTABLE RESTAURANT. 

— Photo by Ur.difrwood & Underwood. 



101 



SINGAPORE. 



For two days we sailed around in tiiis East India archi- 
pelago among the islands, and thru the straits in this warm 
latitude bearing northwest until we ran into the harbour, 
of Singapore ,with the harbour of Singapore surrounding 
as a crescent, in the southeast of the little island of Singa- 
pore. 

This little dot of land is only twenty-five miles long 
and fourteen miles wide at the extreme south end of the 
Malay peninsula separated by a strong strait flowing be- 
tween, which we afterwards crosssed in going over onto 
the peninsula proper, which is an extenuation of narrow 
mountain chain running down most 600 miles to near the 
equator from Asia proper, necessitating all traffic to round 
this point, covering at least one thousand miles farther in 
going round the world, than if a canal was cut thru the 
narrowest part of this long mountainous strip at about ten 
degrees latitude making strate passage from the Bay of 
Bengal into the Gulf of Siam. 

But Singapore would deteriorate by that move. 

This city of a quarter million, composed of every race 
on the globe is the entrepot of all east and west commerce, 
and is divided into three parts — the Europeans occupying 
the central, the Chinese, or yellow race, the west part while 
the brown Malays with strate black hair and eyes 
inhabit the east, and all is presided over by a governor ap- 
pointed by the British crown as this is a British posses- 
sion founded a hundred years ago by Sir Thomas Raffies, 
the English naturalist, eight years after he had been lieu- 
tenant-governor of the little island of Java that we just 
left, before the Dutch took it, and where, here in Singapore 
in this melange of humanity his name is ever kept green 
by being affixed to such institutions thruout the city as 



102 



WHIRL AROUND THE WORLD. 



Eaffles Museum, Raffles Library, Raffles School, Raffles 
Square, Raffles Monument, and what was most to our lik- 
ing, the Raffles Hotel, facing the sea where we lunched in 
the handsome lofty dining room, the floor laid with Carrara 
white marble, itself cooling the very air, for down here in 
the torrid zone on the equator it is hot nine months in 
the year, and the other three are hotter. 

But I enjoyed every minute for everything was so 
green with luxuriant growth, so fresh and moist as it 
rains a little every day, in fact, we learned that the annual 
rainfall is one hundred inches and with the sun's co-opera- 
tion, accounts for the rank growth evident, and it all was 
so strange, interesting and unaccustomed in this cosmopo- 
litan distributing point for everywhere, that I disrgarded 
the heat and gazed in mute wonderment, absorbing to the 
very limit of my capacity. 

Our ship docked at the wharf here and its doors opened 
out on the pier where we were privileged to come and go as 
fancy dictated with the ever-present thot that our palatial 
home de luxe, the "Cleveland" with its inviting social hall, 
music room and library and long halls all ablaze with elec- 
tricity and affording us most delectable foods from every- 
where all the way round the world was waiting, ready to 
mother our over-strained engrossment when night fall 
closed round us, and we go wearily to our respective berths 
only to review the day's enthusiasm over the rare tropical 
scenery and Oriental affection in our dreams as we slept 
out in the harbour surrounded by the cool waters and still 
night. 

The first thing that greets you as you draw into this 
harbour is the fleet of little featherweight canoes, where 
in each was seated a brown-skin Malay boy ready to dive 
down in the water for any coin that our passengers would 
volunteer; they seemed to be half fish as they slipt from 
their canoes head first and swam under the water, never 
missing a coin which they always put in their mouth for 
safe keeping, as they wore little more clothes than a fish. 

On coming down the gangplank, here again we met the 



SINGAPORE. 10^ 

xick-shaw after having lost sight of this fascinating mode 
of locomotion for two ports back — in Java where the dos- 
a-dos supplanted, and in the Philippines, our own islands, 
where some time back a promoter had a number of these 
little man-drawn vehicles manufactured in China with a 
view of an outlet in the Philippines, but deeming it reduc- 
ing the standard of even the lowest class, the Islanders re- 
fused to recognize this substitution of human for animal 
duty. 

The Singapore rick-shaws are made on a larger scale 
than those in Japan; some being wide enuf for two persons, 
the wheels are larger and have pneumatic tires, making 
them very easy riding and here they are drawn only by 
the Chinese as the natives, the Malays, never resort to such 
a breach of their autocracy. 

There are fifty thousand Malays in Singapore and they 
are claimed as indolent and easy-going; but why an effort 
in this equatorial land where things just will grow; the 
jungles furnish the wild fruits, the sea the fish, and owing 
to the climate the matter of, dress is not a pressing prob- 
lem, as the children wear no more than a string of beads 
around their little protruding stomachs, or an anklet or 
bracelet, while for both men and women two yards of cloth 
wrapt round the hips and dropping almost to the ground 
with all the fullness at the front and wadded in at the 
waistline, and of high colors supplies their "one-piece suit." 

The architecture here embraces a variety, as each na- 
tionality builds his home or office characteristic of his 
country. 

One-third of Singapore's population are Chinese and 
it is noticable that they predominate in the masses and 
are the backbone of trade and leaders in some offices of the 
government. 

They are so prolific that they soon overrun any terri- 
tory. 

Their houses all have balconies and 'are painted China 
blue and white. > 

The coolies that draw our rick-shaw are big stalwart 



WHIRL AROUND THE WORLD. 



fellows wearing few clothes, their queues plaited and tied 
up in a little doddling knot at the back of their head and 
they hock and cough and sputter and jabber and grunt as 
they trot along. 

All sorts and conditions of men are seen on the streets 
as Singapore is made up of a mixture of races who have 
migrated to this "cross-roads of the nations" as it is 
termed; you will meet them on the street and can pick 
their nationality by their features or dress. 

There are numerous Chinese, always conservative, 
slipping along in her heelless sandals with wide silk panta- 
loons reaching to the ankles and wearing a brocaded silk 
shirt over these that is slit at both sides letting the tails 
flap at will, which costume, odd at first sight, grows in 
your favor as oftener seen, developed in their rich mate- 
rials ; the man's dress differing very little from the woman's 
in the better class. 

Then comes along a trio of Japanese, out of a number 
of these little people who have left their over-populous is- 
lands in the Pacific and have invaded this port of Great 
Britain, the women with daintily painted faces, black hair 
looped high and stiff with mucilaginous dressing, picking 
along with shortest of steps in their demure little gray silk 
kimonas, with bright obi or wide sash forming a large 
pillow at their back. . 

Then a Malay passes by clad in thin skirt only, his 
bare brown back and broad feet exposed to the sun's beam- 
ing indifference, but they are accustomed to these incandes- 
cent rays, as their origin is traced to the highlands of the 
island of Sumatra just across the strait where it is hotter. 

We recognize Javanese with their little brown smiles, 
square shoulders and short limbs, from the little island we 
just left. 

Many tall . iron-colored Hindoos from India just across 
the Bay of Bengal; there are Arabs from Arabia; Turks 
from a little farther on ; Cinaglese, small of feature, dark 
with black ringlet hair, from the Island of Ceylon ; Burmese 
from the adjoining territory of Burma, and Parsees or "fire- 
worshipers" from Bombay who are stately in their long 



SINGAPORE. 105 

capes and odd little black oil-cloth caps very much like a 
bishop's cap. 

Thus this tip end of the Malay Peninsula becomes the 
meeting places, often converging into permanent homes, of 
these diversified types of the dark races with sundry cus- 
toms and costumes. 

There are near two thousand Europeans and Americans 
who engage in various business enterprises in this very 
significant foreign port, where great blocks of mercantile 
concerns substantiate the soundness of their adventures. 

The broad streets are cleanly, miany with electric car 
lines while there are one hundred miles of the very best 
autom.obile roads leading thru the city out into the country 
where the picturesque little villages of the natives, with 
lev/ thatched roofs set 'midst tall cocoapalms are dotted on 
the very edge of the roadvv^ay where the automobiles spin 
by leaving the natives standing aghast with consternation ; 
on recovery, the coolies dolefully pick up the shafts of their 
little man-trotting vehicles and start off on their less stren- 
uous, if less swift, accustom.ed pace casting a longing glance 
after the rapid-transit conveyance where only a streak of 
dust remains along its gatling course. 

Nothing m.ore exciting than the above to break the 
tranquility of the suburbanites leading the "simple life." 

The kaleidoscopic panorama that sweeps by is any- 
thing but familiar; some of the beauty spots of rare trop- 
ical scenery are heart-breakingly irresistible and one is con- 
straind to abide for aye in the alluring charm imparted. 

One afternoon was spent in crossing the island hj special 
train thru the jungles to the little state of Johore just 
across the strait. 

Thru this wilderness was where our wonder readied 
its acme. I had, on a former occasion been thru the swamps 
of Louisiana, but this entanglement was beyond all con- 
ception ; the route at first was thru great rubber plantations 
where acres of these tall trees in different stages passed 
swiftly by us like whole armies; broad fields of pineapples 
hurried by — they grow low on the ground after the manner 



106 



WHIRL AROUND THE WORLD 



of cabbage; the leaves are spiked like the yucca palm and 
the conical apple sits in the top; some had huge red blos- 
soms while others were ripe; our ship served them on 
board but they were not nearly so luscious as the ones back 
in Hawaii. 

After mJles of this open, cleared, drained and cultivated 
land, the growth of forestry commenced to thicken — the 
trees met above our train and we were completely sur- 
rounded by densse palms and pines and knotted vines all 
interwoven, as even the little gap the railroad track made 
closed in behind us as we threaded our way thru this net- 
work that stood up like a wall on all sides, and as we looked 
ahead seemed almost impenetrable. 

There were trees so high that men looked like toys at 
the base, the outstretching mingling branches excluding 
any ray of light; below this was a second growth with 
tangled tops ; every available spot underneath this was filled 
with swamp palms, some of the handsomest specimens I 
have seen, with wide-spreading perfect leaves, for they have 
never been molested as not a breath of air tosses them 
about, no storm whips and lashes them about and tliey grow 
in unchecked luxuriance out here in the wilds, their native 
home; water stands in pools and lakes under this confusion 
of different foliages and is a menace to clearing unless boats 
are carried, while at other points the swamp-vine has over- 
grown and intertwined and massed together as a huge 
spider web, rendering the entanglement im^passable. 

Again, lying below all this, are layers of large tree- 
bodieis that have been overcome in the struggle, falling 
by the treachery of the marshy footing and succumbing, 
are completely submerged under the weight of the abun- 
dant on-rushing growth. 

One specie of tree so typicial of the jungle, rears up 
out of the water like an octopus on eight or ten roots then 
joins in one body at a height of often eight feet where it 
sets out to growing. 

It is said that by cutting one tree oply, it will not fall, 
that in clearing this mass of disorder it is necessary to 



SINGAPORE. IQJ 

notch every tree in a large space, then cut heavy ones at 
one end of the space, throwing them into the notched ones, 
thus the weight or blow of these fell the others. 

After winding miles thru this wilderness we came to 
the shore of the Strait where we left the train, ran down 
the long incline, where we boarded the little double-decked 
steamers, every one, of course, rushiing to the top deck to 
gain fine views, upon which the captain refused to move an 
inch -until the cargo of humanity was more evenly distri- 
buted as there was a stiff breeze working up a choppy sea 
and danger of capsizing was evident — after a little waiting, 
of each one on the other, the men finally went below, leav- 
ing' the ladies to enjoy- the top deck where the tropical 
ensemble and the spicy aroma off all these East India 
Islands was carried past us by the soothing winds off the 
southern seas as we sailed across the channel to the city of 
Johore. 

Here we took rick-shaws to go to view the Sultan's 
palace. 

This is a great roaming white structure set in beauti- 
ful well kept park grounds and is exclusive, for this little 
independent end of the Malay Peninsula named Johore, is 
ruled by a sultan, which is an Arabic word for "mighty 
one, or lord," and is the title of Mohammedan rulers. 

Leaving this we went over fine boulevards to the large 
new mosque, the worshiping temple or home of the Moham- 
medans, which is seated on a promontory commanding a 
far-away view, the shining white minarets, four in number, 
one at each corner, visible long before we reached it — a 
great white pinnacled and domed mass in a green setting. 

This was my first observation of anything pertaining 
to Mohammedism. 

This big bare house of prayer, dedicated to the religion 
or teachings of Mohamet, the founder of Islamism — which 
means "entire submission to the decrees of God" and who 
was born in Mecca, Arabia, almost six centuries after 
Christ, and at the age of sixty-one, died and was buried in 
the house of Ayesha his second wife, in Medina, also in 



IQg WHIRL AROUND THE WORLD. 

Arabia, about two hundred and fifty miles distant from 
Mecca, 'which house afterwards became a part of the great 
mosque adjoining and an open place for pilgrimage for the 
Moslems but unbelievers are not tolerated. 

Thus, after viewing the mysterious worshiping of 
Buddha in the Orient and traveling westward round the 
world, we come upon a new religion and new worshiping 
edifices in the Far East where th teachings of this Arabian, 
Mohamet, has spread to this point, almost four thousand 
miles away from its seat of origin having made Mecca fa- 
mous as the holiest city in the Mohammedan world by his 
birth and origin of nev/ teachings, which is contained in the 
Koran or Mohammedan Bible. 

The adherents all read or receive or study aloud in a 
rambling way, in a kneeling, half-sitting posture on the 
floor of the great bare mosques whose only furnishings 
are the big broad carpet, or rug on the m.arble floor and 
many lamps. 

Two handsome chandaliers with thousands of glittering 
prisms, hanging suspended from the high ceiling of this 
mosque in Johore, where we were required to exchange our 
shoes for sandals, which the attendants at the door did 
for us, before we were permitted to enter this sacred house 
of prayer where a few natives were squatting anywhere 
around the room, weaving to. and fro perpetually, and mur- 
muring incessantly from_ their Koran v/hich they held in 
their hand, entirely oblivious of any one's' presence; the 
Koran is about the size of the New Testament and has one 
hundred and fourteen chapters. 

There are no seats ; many of these mosques or monu- 
ments to Mohamet are of quadrangular form, enclosing a 
large stone court with fountains for ablutions, as we after- 
wards saw at other points, and their extent and grandeur 
and appalling height of domes and minarets and cupolas 
almost overwhelm you as you gaze and wonder at the mas- 
siiveness, austerenesc and silence as we visited many and 
all the important mosques later ,and as we traveled on, 
we found this religion stretches from Johore to Egypt, 
where ninetenths of the population are Moslems, and on 



SINGAPORE., 



109 



thru the north coast countries of Africa, for the followers 
of this prophet is estimated at something like two hundred 
and fifty million — almost one-half the number of our Chris- 
tians. 

In each of these big empty palaces of worship, we no- 
ticed a recess in the wall which is called the mihrab, and 
is built there to designate the direction of Mecca, where 
all worshipers must turn /their eyes while saying their 
prayers which, the Koran teaches must be five times each 
day wherever they may be, but on Fridays must be said 
in the mosque. . 

Another religious duty of all Moslems is to make at 
least once in his life the pilgrimage to Mecca, the birth- 
place of their leader who enjoins upon them the faith that 
"There is no God but Allah, and Mohamet is his Prophet"; 
while he recognizes Jesus as a prophet, he assumes himself 
as "greater, the last and most excellent." 

Near this recess in the wall is built the mimbar, or 
the pulpit of the priests and on the walls is written words 
irom the Koran ; at either corner on the outside of the 
jmosques and rising far above the domes, are built slender 
lofty minarets pointing skyward, surrounded by balconies, 
where some had reached their zenith in intricacy and ele- 
gance of design — shining like white alabaster in the sun, 
and especially was this effective in Egypt enveloped in the 
yellow glow of the sands of the desert. 

These minarets are used by the muezzin, or public 
cryer, who comes out on the balconies and summon the 
Moslems to prayer five times a day — at daybreak, noon, 
four o'clock, sunset and night-fall. 

After being lost in this great hall of silence, learning 
of this strange holy custom of a portion of the dark races 
of the East we withdrew from this imposing structure 
amassed as proof of the sincerity of the followers of Mo- 
hamet, and came out in the open where we exchanged the 
cloth sandals for our native shoes, and taking up rick-shaw 
travel for the last time (which we reluctantly gave up as 
we had become endeared to this novel mode of sight-seeing) 



WQ WHIRL AROUND THE WORLD. 

we swept along at a pacing gait thru fine boulevards and 
green swards to the landing place of the double-decked 
steamers recrossing the straits to meet our train wending 
our way back thru the jungle arriving at a late hour where 
we im.msdiately boarded our steamer, marveling at the aft- 
ernoon's "experience. 

The next da,y we had sailed out of the straits of Ma- 
lacca, having left this important British port which is so 
worthy of a second visit with its interesting miscellany 
of races. 

Singapore is not the far-a-way place we are prone to 
believe caused mostly by our lack of familiarity with the 
geography of the world — the same sun serves duty on 
both sides of the v/orld and we adjust ourelves to the situa- 
tion, we get in and ride along the beautiful sunny roads 
and grow smilingly intimate with the predestined rick- 
shav/ man or the native shopkeeper as we stop and buy a 
trifle at tvv^ice itis value. 

We had no m^ore than passed out of the straits into 
the Inndian Ocean when I discovered a freak I had often 
read about but haa never witnessed; 'twas a water spout 
at sea. 

The sea was calm, but unsettled clouds flurried here 
and there above us and we looked and saw out on the sea 
not far from us, but at a safe distance a dark whirling 
cloud; vv^e v/atched it breathlessly as it kept whirling itself 
into a funnel shape, the funnel growing longer and reaching 
doY/n to the sea, tearing it and drawing up the water in 
the vv-hirl and dropping it gaain like a cloudburst, making 
an avv^ful rushing noise, and directly the sea for a large 
circle around ran up to meet the funnel dancing in little 
artisian spouts and finally the two, now connected, formed 
a huge v/hirling column reaching from sea to clouds and 
•stood that way writhing and twisting for an indefi.nite time, 
rendering a most magnificent spectacle. 

■ Soon the column of water dropt from the vortex back 



SINGAPORE. ■" 111 

into the sea with a plunge, and the cloud, unbalanced for 
a moment, like a balloon suddenly cut loose from its moor- 
ings, sailed off with bedraggled and torn ends trailing after, 
and all was calm, while we stood amazed at the wonderful 
display of wind and vapour and water with the sea for a 
stage, seemingly for our benefit — just another one of the 
many tropical freaks. 



112 



BURMA, 



We now settled back for a listless and indolent' four 
days balmy sea journey of 1,140 miles, running northerly 
along the west coast of the long Malay Peninsula to Burma 
— the little country joining on the south of China, v/hich 
constitutes, after numerous wars the Farther India of Great 
Britain, or an extenuation of Hindustan, with Siam on the 
east. 

As we approached the delta of the Irawaddy river 
which runs thru the center of this little country, from 
north to south, and is the main artery for the disposition 
of coast traffic to the interior, even as far as Mandelay, 
and which discharges itself into the Indian Ocean thru 
many mouths, we found a muddy sea surrounding. . 

The strong tide battling with the on-coming currents 
of the river keeps the water in a constant state of turbul- 
ence. 

We drew in at one of the mouths of the Irav\^addy, 
the Rangoon river thru the rough, muddy, yellow flow 
that was most as wide as a bay, and steaming seventeen 
;miles up this river we left our ship anchored off Hasting' s 
Shoal and transfered to small double-decked steamers to 
run the remaining four miles to Rangoon, the seaport, 
capital and largest city in Burma, twenty-one miles from 
the sea, with a population of near three hundred thousand, 
or near that of St. Paul. 

What a panorama met us as we sailed up to the quay, 
having gazed in almost consternation the last few miles 
at what appeared to be a golden city, for as Buddhism pre- 
vails in Burma, and on account of the innumerable shrines 
and temples in recognition of Buddha's doctrines being 



BUE.MA. X13 

faithfully adhered to in Rangoon, enough to warrant the 
city to be called the Rome of this faith, of course, the 
one thing towering above everything else in the distant 
outline was the great gold dome of the greatest temple — 
the Shwe Dagon Pagoda, with its wide-spreading ovaling 
spire reaching heavenward glittering in the morning sun 
and shedding golden reflection over the city; 'twas some- 
thing entirely different and extravagant in origin and dis- 
play to anything we have seen even after all the days we 
spent amid the splendour and grandeur of the Oriental 
riches. - 

• In our eagerness to further inform ourselves upon this 
golden object rising out of the city so far away, landing 
at eight A. M. we hurried off to the ghurries , that was 
awaiting us at the quay, climbed inside and was soon on 
the road to the point of our curiosity, rumbling thru the 
hot dusty streets of Rangoon- 
Transit in a ghurry was a new feature, but wishing to 
try out the native customs of any country, we soon adjust 
ourselves to the situation. 

We find this is the accepted vehicle for this hot region, 
it being sunstroke proof by its heavy wood box-like heat- 
resisting or non-penetrable thickness, with little strate-up 
seats for two, and air vents of latticed windows in the side 
doors which, when closed, excluding the hot rays, looked 
more like a little square house sitting on four heavy wheels, 
ours being drawn by a very thin but tough white horse 
over which the white-turbaned and bearded black driver 
popped the whip m^ercilessly from high above us on the 
outside where, when we wanted his attention for instruc- 
tions v/e had to reach out and poke him. with our umbrella. 

On we rumbled thru the streets, for this is a big city 
of vast acreage as there are no skyscrapers here for the 
condensing of population, m.eeting many species of human- 
ity in all sorts of draped v/earing apparel, m.ostly leaving 
the upper body exposed, always walking singly thru the 
middle of the streets like nomads, and invariably bare- 
footed — for these subjects of King George and Queen Mary 



■^1^ WHIRL AROUND THE WORLD. 

are not much concerned about European advancement and 
are opposed to over exertion. 

We finally brot up thru a parky woods of big trees, 
for all trees grow to giant proportions in this undisturbed 
balmy country, to the entrance of the great squatting, 
tabernacle-liike dome, all spread out and gilded over, out 
of which rises in graudated circles the spire to a height 
of 370 feet all covered with pure gold leaf or thin gold 
plate, which is replaced after certain v\^earings from ex- 
posure to the elements at an enormous cost, and the gleam- 
ing structure is set off at the extreme top with a large 
crown all studded with bright gems, claiming a value of a 
quarter million dollars, and at different points are bells of 
gold, silver and^ bronze swinging from gilt bands attached, 
the wind swaying them to and fro forcing a delightful 
chiming harmony that attracts your attention; and all this 
domey mass of glittering gold was what was blazing in 
the sunlight before us, back in the harbour. 

What a handsome tribute to Buddha, to shine for cen- 
turies to come , as a momnument to his precepts, v/hich 
has gained followers thru all the adversities of twenty-nve 
hundred years, when he founded and began teaching this 
religious system just over in the adjjoining country of 
India, at Benares on the Holy Ganges, only about three 
hundred miles from Rangoon, and which has grown to be 
the prevailing religion from the Island of Ceylon easterly 
thru Burma, Siam, China and Japan including all the south- 
east Asiatic countries. 

We passed up thru numerous broad stone steps, all 
colonaded on either side and sheltered with a pagoda of 
various gables roof with hundreds of artistically wrought 
pinnacles "pointing to diverse heights above, with mammoth 
beasts grotesquely carved with hideous gaping jaws, placed 
here and there to guard against evil. 

Surrounding, on the outside of this great temple, prop- 
er, are hundreds of small temples, all with pinnacled tops, 
all sides enclosed except the front where, as we walked 
round on the broad plaza viewing, we could see the gods 



BURMA. W^ 

or idols or images of Buddha seated in these small outside 
temples. 

Some of these gods are of all gold apparently, others 
of bronze, also of silver and marble, sometimes as many 
as six or eight, I counted, sitting in the same little crowded 
temple ranging from life size down to miniature statues 
of Buddha — always in sitting posture, placed there by de- 
vout pilgrims according to their estimate of great benefit 
received, and where offerings are continually made. 

Round thru the court surrounding this great golden 
temple, we vv^ent which was lined with little bazaars where 
the natives offer for sale, little, bells, all kinds of flowers, 
miniatures of the pagoda, pieces of sandalwood, cheroots 
a foot long — two for five cents, and interspersed along the 
walks were all kinds of cripiples and pitiable deformities 
twisting and scrambling in wierd contortions on the ground, 
calling continually, their one word *'bachsheesh" meaning 
money. 

Others, blind, would thump out doleful strains from 
peculiar stringed musical instruments. 

Scattered along were whole families (the Burmese are 
small peoples) sitting in groups on the floor, the women, 
who are brown and of pleasing expression, with almost 
perfect features, in every instance were smoking a cheroot 
tliat was most an inch in diameter and often eight inches 
in length, one cheroot lasting a smoker a whole day. 

These women sit around with nursing babies, and draw 
on the soothing qualities of these cheroots while all ages 
of children play about, draped or undraped. 

I noticed, in this country, and all those just passed, 
that the natives are at home or in their accustomed atti- 
tude when sitting on the floor — I do not recall an instance 
where seated on a chair, in fact, I do not recall a chair, 
always squatting or sitting or aimlessly walking. 

In going furthei* round this plaza; we marvel at the 
were Buddhas everywhere — oh, so many; we marvel at the 
stupendous outlay for all this show of idols made of gold, 
silver and bronze, gilt, marble and stone by the hundreds, 



•^^Q WHIRL AROUND THE WORLD. 

in the temples and out of the temples, from the giant ones 
towering above, always in sitting posture upon a throne 
with large full face, and eyes cast down, to the very 
smallest. 

What a sensation a day's wandering thru all this pro- 
duces upon one; it just seemed the whole had closed in 
around us, and we wished to get away. 

We walked round on the other side where, under a 
big shed, edibles were sold or served, but as the species 
offered, and the sanitation appeared questionable we re- 
frained from any patronage, and retracing down the hun- 
dreds of stone steps where a continual stream of worshipers, 
pilgrims and sight-seers were coming or going, we quit 
this remarkable, pathetic custom we viewed this day, and 
upon retiring at night, idols seem.ed to be standing all round 
the room. 

There is also a fine big mosque in Rangoon, a hand- 
some towered and turreted and pinnacled structure show- 
ing that all are not worshipers of idols. 

Some of our Christian countries have missions sta- 
tioned here, and very often thru these missionaries, na- 
tives are brot to our country to further themselves in our 
customs and modes of progress, one young Burmese Miss 
recently came over and is a student at the Missouri Bap- 
tist Sanitarium studying the art of nursing, when after 
three years she returns to Burma to nurse her countrymen 
in a new hospital there. 

There is also a fine Roman Catholic church in Rangoon. 

The Burmese women either wear loose sandals or go 
with feet bare, which are black, dusty, widely spread and 
caloused from long contact with the hot sands. 

They wear light, short, loose waists with straggling 
skirts, but more often with bright colored pantlets alone, 
as also do the men, making it difficult to distinguish the 
women from the men, and again, some of the men wear 
skirts. 

I noticed very little jewelry worn by these peoples who 
are of lethargic movement, and who are patient workers in 



BURMA. ^^'J 

their slow primitive way, and they turn out much original 
traffic, such as umbrellas made by hand as they sit around 
on the floor, also ivory, teakwood and sandalwood carvings 
of most grotesqque characters, and idiol making of differ- 
ent metals and stones. 

They ship out of their country chiefly rice and timber. 

Here, as in all the other countries we have visited, 
the big black carabao, or water buffalo, with great bulging 
sides and horns of unbelievable size spreading more than 
a yard, then curving backward, is the chief draft animal, 
the natives cultivating their rice fields or drawing their 
street carts, the wheels of which are of solid wood, no 
spokes at all, with either one or two of these animals ; no 
harness save a heavy crude yoke, with rope lines running 
thru their noses ; in other cases, oxen are used, but their 
horses are measly excuses ; what few there are seen, draw 
the ghurries, the native carriages, thru the streets. 

The elephant plays quite a part in the traffic of Burma, 
this being the hom.e of the elephant. 

We rushed out one morning to the suburbs of Gangoon ■ 
to see them piling teakwood ; they would get down on their 
knees and take up great square logs of the teak between 
their snout and tusks, and rise with it, and with directions 
from the keeper who sits on top in a kind of saddle strapt 
on, he carries and depositis the cumbersome and almost 
unmanageable log to its destination, working with patience 
all the day in this valuable lumber yard. 

It's one of the sights to see a number of these big gray 
pudgy shambling masses of sloppy flesh trailing one after 
the other at a distance ; as we are accustomed to see one 
or two imprisoned ones at a circus in our States. 

The roads are fine under British dictation and many 
splendid buildings on European principles have been erected, 
where we visited the stores ; we also sought the na^ve 
shops, which are small and ill-kept in most part. 

The Burmese language is something like the Chinese 
— just one sylable to a word, but while they are lively, 
they do not jabber so freely as the Chinese. 



-^-^^ WHIRL ABOUND THE WORLD. 

One day we took "tiffin" (as lunch is called in the Far 
East) at the big "Minto Mansioins" hotel, named after 
Lord Minto who was appointed by Great Britain as viceroy 
to British India more than eight years ago, which means 
that he was governor, ruling in the king's name. 

This mamoth hotel covers tv/o acres and has a pic- 
turesque arcaded terrace surrounding two outsides where 
soft drinks are served by the natives, in their interesting 
long white shirts worn on the outside with a wide red 
sash tied round their waist, with white turbans, as they 
walk stealthily about at no fast gait. 

At the farther end of the little park grounds called the 
Palm Garden, is an open-air stage erected, where native 
dances and plays are given which we viewed from the ter- 
race as we sat at the little tables; graceful and fantastic 
dances were reeled off 'mid the green setting while the 
Military band performed at one side, which appealed to us 
almost as much as did the "tiffin." 

Out of consideration for we visitors from the American 
continent, the band rendered such pieces as ''Stars and 
Stripes Forever," "Americaine," and "U. S. A." where we 
rose in recognition and applause of the familiar strains 
away over here in dark Burma after sailing over foreign 
lonely seas for two months. 

Leaving this big hostelry we again took up the pre- 
vailing mode of conveyance, the ghurry, driving thru the 
city past good buildings and shacks, over good roads and 
bad, for the new and the old are everywhere together, on 
out to the suburbs where we came upon the beautiful Vic- 
toria Park. 

Well kept lawns ran back up into little native wooded 
hills imprisoning two large lakes called Royal Lakes, the 
sheen of the smooth surface shining like silver, the land- 
scape running out into the water in various forms, afford- 
ing splendid view points, a border or rare flora and shrubs 
parallel with a promenade, following the curves of the 
wandering outline of the shores. 

Some of our party, with myself, stood in line for the 
photographer, having the great Shwe Dogan golden spire 



BURMA. ]^]^9 

for a background across the lake showing the distance 
across the city. 

We drove all afternoon in this hand-wrought scape, 
absorbing the aroma and charm of foreign atmosphere. 

Realizing that the last tender was to leave the wharf 
at 6:30 P. M. for our steamer four miles down the river, 
for our time was up to leave this port, we hurried along 
the strand to the water front, boarded the double-decked 
tender and started dov/n stream, looking back until the 
great golden tower of 'the Buddhist padoga grew smaller 
and smaller, finally disappearing altogether, and we felt 
we had learned a little something of this little brown peo- 
ple's small, seemingly closed in, world over here and how 
little they seem to know or care about any other world but 
theirs. 

When we drew near our steamer we foilnd from her 
low long blasts for us not to approach, that v/e could not 
go aboard for the strong tide forbade anchorage for our 
steamer, and she was groping ai;ound trying to find a foot- 
hold for the anchor, holding us at bay for two hours where 
our loaded little double-decked tender hobbled like a top- 
heavy cork as we drifted around in the yellow muddy, 
choppy sea until we were most sea sick. 

'Twas dark when we finally dared to draw up along 
the side of our big steel floating home, leaving the dark 
natives, who had brot us out, gazing in amazement at the 
celerity of the white folks as we rushed up the long line 
of steps hanging down the side of the steamer, and they 
slowly took up their thread and turned their boat's nose 
tov/ard their haven, their little slow world, looking long 
after us, and I'm sure their thots often reverted to the 
daring qualities of this steamer load of American peoples 
sailing the high seas of the world with all thot of disaster 
yet in the embryo. 

We weighed anchor and soon steamed down the seven- 
teen miles and out of the big Rangoon, one of the many, 
mouths of the mighty Irawaddy that divides Burma in 
the center and drains spurs of the Himalayas on the north. 



120 



BAY OF BENGAL. 



Leaving the Gulf of Martaban, we rounded Cape Ne- 
gT-ais, the southwest point of Burma and swung out into 
the blue ^-vaters of the Bay of Bengal, so unlike the clay- 
like ilov/ we had just left. 

Sea -sailing vv^ould not be what it is, were it not 'for 
the beautiful reflections of the brilliant blue waters. 

Who would care to spend days on a mudd^/ sea where 
there is no mysterious transparency? 

Two days and nights (half the nights are turned into 
day down here in the tropicri) we skim the perfectly clear 
surface of the Bay of Bengal, cutting a wide swath, some- 
thing like sixty-five feet, for that was the beam of our 
ship, throwing the water in a ruffling of radiating waves^ 
over which little white bubbles co^st and shoot the chutes,, 
and I fail to meditating on v/hat an important part these 
islands of the East India archipelago play in the necessaries 
of the v/orld — how they furnish the little things, and some 
of the big things too, for that matter; spices and cloves,; 
which v/e gathered off the trees, they being the flower 
buds, dried, of the clove tree which is green all the year 
and is about twenty feet high and makes a pretty tree; 
nutmegs, where we knocked them from trees fifty feet 
high with heavy growth of shining short round leaves, the 
nutmeg looking like an enlarged hickory nut in its green 
state when pulled after drying, the hull com.es oli, leaving 
the nutmeg proper surrounded by a network of yellow 
stringy veins which when separated and dried, com.es over 
to us as mace. ' . 

Very common things with us, but this island group 
southeast of Asia, where the waters of the Pacific and In- 



BAY OF BENGAL. 221 

clian oceans are washed back and fro thru the different 
straits and channels is the home of them ; cinnamon, which 
is gained by the natives barking the cinnamon tree which 
^rows about twenty-five feet high; this bark is dried and 
rolls up, the green leaves taste stronglj^ of cinnamon and 
oil is obtained from them. 

During our rtip to the big cinnamon groves, our driver, 
in order to ingratiate himself in our tipping favor, brot us 
^reat branches of these fragrant leaves. 

Our pepper also comes from here where it is one of 
the chief cultivated items of commerce — the little round 
hot berries that we use as pepper, grows in clusters on a 
climbing vine and are red when ripe, and black when dried, 
and the white pepper is of the same but of the select 
berries with the outer skin taken oil. 

So one can see why "the spicy odor of the Southern 
.Seas." 

While talking about pepper, I found 02ie of the customs 
in these Far East hotels, is the little silver pepper grinder 
served on the tables where each of us ground our pepper 
on our food as we ate it. 

Among the big things that come from these unknown 
islands, are coffee, rice, tea, cocoanuts, rubber and teak — 
all these we saw growing in different stages; with such a 
warm damp climate,- things just will grow, and what a 
variety; without having visited, no one can conceive the 
abundant production of "these little islands of little 
peoples." 

The tide of the ocean is a treacherous thing, and one 
of the problems of maritime traffic. 



122 



INDIA. 



On Hearing Calcutta, on the east side of India, thi,-? 
big triangular peninsula that juts down from Asia to al- 
most the equator, we found that sand bars form in the 
Hooghli river, which is one of the many mouths of the 
Holy Ganges, and the only one navigated by large ships. 

This sacred Ganges river begins way up in the north- 
west of India and runs easterly draining the snowy Hi- 
malayas for a length of seventeen hundred miles, overflow- 
ing its banks to a width of one hundred miles in the rainy 
season (for they do have a rainy season in this country 
altho you would never think so) , and at a distance of about 
three hundred miles, river course, from the sea it begins 
to separate into many channels, making a great swampy 
waste, which is called "sunderbunds," as it discharges its 
muddy water into the virgin blue of the Bay of Bengal on 
the east of India, the whole delta seeming to be a mass of 
shifting mud and sand banks which impede, at times, all 
traffic in the delta. 

Our next port, the big city of Calcutta, the metropolis, 
and, until recently the capitol and seat of government of 
this British Indian peninsula, and the chief port, having 
wrested this laurel from Bombay, its rival on the opposite 
coast of India, lies on the upper or east bank of the Hooghli 
(pronuonced ''hooly") about eighty miles from the sea, at 
Diamond Harbour, making it necessary for largest steam- 
ers to depend on the tide for crossing over these bars that 
are formed promiscuously by the silted sand. 

There was anxiety as to whether our steamer could 
make the passage over the bars on one tide, if not we would 
be compelled to remain where the ebb tide left us until 
the next tide came, which would be a twenty-four hours 



INDIA. X23 

wait ; fortunately the tidal conditions proved favorable, our 
ship passed safely over on the one tide and we steamed up 
the Hooghli to within forty-two miles of Calcutta where 
we anchored in midstream expecting to go on shore by 
tenders conveying us to the recently built landing pier, 
where the special train runs down from Calcutta to meet 
these big ships, doing away with the long water trip of 
four to seven hours on the uncomfortable and uncertain 
tenders at the risk of wet feet and soot-covered clothes, 
but, a tropical storm came upon us. 

'Twas growing dusk and Sunday eve, there was vio- 
lent rushings of wind and in its fury lashed the waters and 
tore and tugged at the big heavy tarpaulins stretched over 
the decks, the thunder bombarding, the lightning gesti- 
culating wildly with our four tall masts seeming determined 
to split them, then suddenly throwing its powerful illumina- 
tion on the far shore like Heaven's searchlight, shoving 
the night into the background for the instant, the blazing 
panorama revealed a picture of wierdness on the land among 
tall scattering cocoanut palms with their fibrous plumes 
bowing and bending as they were lashed to the ground in 
the fury of the cyclonic wind and rain. 

These helpless forms struggling to hold their state- 
liness disclosed a wrecked scene at every flash, their writh- 
ing and contortions silhouetted against the inky blackness 
was all that was viisible on the far distant shore of a low 
flat land that was scarcely discernable as we sat out in 
the troubled waters awaiting subsidence. 

A small tender with a solitary light stood over near 
the shore not daring to approach our vessel; she had come 
, down from Calcutta bringing the ship's mail, bearing us 
messages from home — m.essages grown six weeks old in 
their travel of twelve thousand miles over se"a from the 
opposite side of the globe. , 

Deprived of the cheer of reading our mail before morn- 
ing, and thankful we had not been made a target for the 
electrical maneuvering, we turned with unwillingness to our 
berths and insomnia, lulled by the drifting, rocking motion 
of the boat and the quickened strains of the agitated waters 



124 



WHIRL AROUND THE WORLD. 



washing by; a stillnes had settled down all around — even 
the drone of the mighty engines in the heart of the ship 
below had ceased and was now passive, after long days 
and nights of driving the resistless propellers, not a sound 
emitted from the crew of hundreds as they discharged their 
duties at their posts, the elevator that carried us up and 
down five flights had discontinued its clicking sound, nobody 
promonaded the storm-swept decks — all was hushed save 
the rushing of waters, and we were alone out here in the 
lowlands among the sand bars and tide, drenched and wind 
whipt. 

Coming up on deck next morning, we found to our dis- 
may, that the turbulence of the storm and tide of the night 
had washed away the landing stage, and a landing could 
not be effected until after luncheon, M^hen a quickly im- 
provised bridge of long stretches of heavy lumber cleated 
together on rock pillars was erected, and we were handed 
singly from one Indian native to another who were sta- 
tioned along this temporary cause-way to guide us over 
the surging tide below. 

'Twas with a feeling of relief that we touched terra 
firma once more, leaving the incoming tide to battle with 
the outgoing river, a hundred miles from the coast, where 
the force of the mighty ocean pushes the river back up 
stream until the tide ebbs, or has spent itself, when both 
river and tide, fresh water and salt water go hurrying out 
together, only to repeat this pitched battle of tide against 
river, every day in the year. 

Glad to abandon our watery surroundings for a while 
we scurried across a fine grassy sward, the sun beaming 
down at a terrible degree of torridity bringing up a stifling 
steam off the damp ground, where we boarded the long- 
'"Special" sent down from Calcutta and watched the natives 
carry the trunks and luggage on their black naked backs 
from the landing pier across the green commons to the 
train. 

They worked and trotted back and forth like an army 
of ants balancing trunks on their shoulders (never in their 
hands) and suit cases and large bundles of bed clothing 



125 



on top their heads, (for who travels in India must take 
their bedding with them). 

I had seen foreign pictures of these spindle-legged In- 
dians transporting huge loads of articles of travel on their 
heads, and now I realized the custom, as they trotted along 
in the oppressive heat, with a scanty cloth wrapt round 
their loins as the only article of clothing on their ebony 
bodies as they glistened like polished iron under the tropical 
sun. . . ' 

The whistle blew, and we settled back in our seats 
for the forty-two mile journey to Calcutta, scrutinizing the 
interior of the coach, which is made up of small compart- 
ments seating only six or eight, the upholstered benches 
running along the sides, and each compartment entered 
from the side — no end entrance or vestibule or aisle reck- 
oned in the building of these East India coachs. 

When the wheels turn, what a jolt you get at every 
revolution as tho one cog was missing, letting you drop on 
the rail with a thud. 

Really it's incomparable with our own spacious coaches 
gliding smoothly trans-continent. 

Adjusting myself to the jogging sensation, I fell to 
viewing the passing landscape as it changed from swamp 
to desert to jungle to little villages smothered in cocoanut 
trees with hedges of palms, with the dark natives — men 
and children, wandering around aimlessly bobbing up be- 
hind a clump or shrub, seemingly having nothing to do 
only just to live because they are there. 

But they must necessarily be numerous as they num- 
ber about three hundred million — three times as many peo- 
ple as the United States, and on territory only one-half as 
large. 

Of course ,as India is the land of Maharajas' and Rajas' 
— titles given to kingly and princely independent rulers of 
certain territories called states, but now under British ad- 
ministration the title of Rajah being generally assumed 
by large land holders or rent-gatherers, and the title of 
Maharaja (meaning "great rajah or king") more often 



2^26 WHIRL AROUND THE WORLD. 

\ 

given to the native princes or persons of high rank or held 
"holy" being of Brahman belief religiously, which treats 
of caste distinction, these dusky orientals by the way-side 
born of low caste and poor, are always of low caste and 
poor. 

They are tall, strate, thin, of taciturn demeanor, with 
searching eye, but for lack of material to do with in these 
back villages, they are , handicapt in progress and left to 
roam. 

The houses of these passing villages were more often 
mud huts with roofs of dried grass and mud mixed and 
heavily daubed, often a continuous row joining many rooms 
and all with dirt floors. 

Sometimes the carabao and bullock stables would be 
joined onto these huts, the stables or places of shelter or 
protection from the sun's rays were generally a mud and 
thatch roof only, supported on wood stilts. 

One of the sights, and later found to be a very common 
and seemingly necessary one, was the drift of these animals, 
gathered up and made into little flat cakes by hand, and 
slapped all over the outside walls of the huts and tree 
trunks where they are left to dry after which they serve 
as fuel to burn. "• 

At intervals along the route, are ponds dug deep and 
embanked with the dirt, to catch the rain and hold for 
stock and domestic use ; palms, bananas and branching trees 
are planted thickly round this to prolong the supply of 
water by protecting from evaporation in the thoroly sun- 
dried atmosphere. 

On some of these ponds, green scum had formed altho 
goats or bullocks were cooling themselves in its limited 
supply by wading or floundering around in its miry depths. 

Something like this primitive means of storing water 
for domestic and anim.al use, must be resorted to in the 
more obscure or less developed parts of India, as I noticed 
here and ever after during our stay in India, that one of 
the necessary parts of each pedestrians' accoutrements, or 
a part of any native traveler's paraphernalia, is a brass 
water receptacle, shaped something like a large bowled 



INDIA 2.27 

squat vase, and I noted that whatever of filth and squalor 
encompast the individual, that this vessel was polished to 
a shining brightness as they carried them along in their 
hands as tho a fixed part of themselves; men, women and 
children, all carry these thirst eradicators of various sizes, 
ranging from a pint to a gallon. 

As our East India Special rolled along, transporting its 
cargo of American sea-travelers to its terminus, Calcutta 
on the banks of the Ganges, wither we were to mingle 
among its brown-hued, bejeweled, scantily bedraped popu- 
lace of uncommunicative disposition, to gather such im- 
pressions as our time limit would permit, I realized that 
we were indeed in a strange country of strange peoples 
with strange ideas. 

- India — she lies almost as a human form stretching 
down from Asia into the ocean; the giant Himalayas an 
everlasting crown at the head; a chain of jewels encircling 
the neck set with such gems as Delhi, Agra, Benares, Cawn- 
pore and Lucknow, thru which flows the life-stream, the 
HolyHoly Ganges; on the right is a calloused place — the 
Tar Desert, whose famines have cost so many lives; on 
the left lies the heart — Calcutta; two mountain ranges ex- 
tend down the sides like arms, with a pearl on either hand 
— Bombay on the west and Madras on the east, with Ceylon 
enshackling its feet, the whole body parasitic with temples 
and idols, sapping the very life of freedom and progress 
with its bondage, because of ironclad rules imposed upon 
the Hindus by their idolatrous belief, inherited from their 
ancestors and handed along down the generations until 
they seem held in its grasp, powerless to throw off the en- 
cumbrance which appears so oppressive and an impediment 
to the develeopment of any talent that might be their own 
birthright. 

This reverence to Brahma, the god of fates, master of 
life and death, and the more exalted of the three deities — 
Vishu, the preserver, and Siva, the destroyer and repro- 
ducer, being the other two gods — under the protecting or 
redeeming religious system of Brahmanism (this being the 
prevailing religion of the Hinduss, and the distinctive one 



128 



WHIRL AROimD THE WORLD. 



of India handed down these long centuries), may have some 
worthy points, but it also has its pathetic side- 
There is certainly loyalty of its adherents, which num- 
bers about three-fourths of all India's population. 

The ''caste" distinction, v/hich is a part of the Brah- 
man rites, that of high and low caste, preventing the marry- 
ing of one caste to that of the other, or of eating food 
cooked by the other, has had a tendency to keep the stand- 
ard of the high caste up in education and culture to a notch 
quite superioir to the castes around, but such only renders 
the lower caste much lower and despondent by the sub- 
stantiation of this barrier between bona fide brethren of 
the same nation. 

Altho expounders in the way of missionaries have been 
sent over by Christian Europeans and Am.ericans, yield- 
ing so slow, only about three million having responded. 

India's emancipation will require centuries as it has 
been a Brahman stronghold since centuries before Christ, 
the system being extracted from sacred writings or rituals 
called the Vedas, which means "know" in Sanskrit, their 
dead language, and which now has been revised and pruned 
and enlarged upon until superstition plays an active part 
— for instance, if you mention the word "bat" in their 
presence on certain occasions, they will throw away their 
rice for the next meal, and many other customs equally as 
absurd. . 

Under the same religious demands a Hindu of high 
caste must needs throw away his rice if even the shadow 
of a passer-by of low caste falls upon it; rice, of course, 
being the chief food ,taking the place of bread among the 
Indians, the same as in Japan, in that wonderful semi- 
starvation land of silk worms and temples. 

While the British dominate this territory, they are in- 
different to the caste evil. 

In its stead thy have "class" distinction themselves; 
the noblemen and officials of culture and land holders do 
not care to rub shoulders with the uneducated or those en- 
gaged in trade, and as one Woman in London exprest it 



INDIA. 129 

'''sometimes they are very nasty about it," (pronounced 
""nawsty," and used on all occasions). 

One English woman said to me "ah, you Americans 
say 'nice,' I think nice is such a 'nawsty' word." 

But this "class" distinction is not due to the rituals 
of the English folk religion at all, as in the case of the 
Hindu. 

The more devoted to the Hindu religion a man is, the 
more cautious of being touched by one of "different caste." 

Tho India has been one succession of struggles between 
the native dynasties and invaders since the beginning, Brah- 
manism has and still reigns supreme; altho Buddhism was 
introduced and established thruout India about the third 
centry B. C. but soon gave way to Brahmanism; while three 
out of every four are Brahmans, the Buddhists are reduced 
to about seven million, notwithstanding this is the birth- 
place of Buddha, and Benares is where he first commenced 
teaching his new faith in opposition to Brahmanism which 
Avas not recognized by the Hindus as a dominant system 
until two centuries after its origin, altho Buddhism holds 
the record for the greatest number of votaries of the world's 
whole human population, mainly confined to the Far East 
where we so recently visited, which bespeaks the miriads of 
temples in China and Japan, the spread of which, all Europe 
and our States, or the Christians proper refer to as "the 
yellow peril." 

The Great Hindu, or Brahman temples that often cover 
many acres, have walls surrounding and massive carved 
towers reared high in the air as gateways; inside this en- 
closure are the priest's dwellings and shrines of the differ- 
ent gods. 

Thus one sees India's greater population living in huts 
with nary thot of convenience while there great idol-wor- 
shiping edifices are absorbing its vital parts — she has swapt 
liovels onto her peoples in exchange for handsome temples. 

It is said that the money poured into the treasury of 
the temples, and the jewelry bedecking the idols, as neck- 
laces, bracelets, rings and other articles studded with dia- 
monds and emeralds, often pale those of a monarch. 



130 



WHIRL AROUND THE WORLD. 



I review these incidents because without some knowl- 
edge of the ancestral customs that have dominated this 
country disclosed in the every day walks of these dark 
orientals, we would not apprehend the retarded condition 
of the race and nation in general, considering the number 
of generations of evolution. 

There are also a great many Mohammedans in India, 
especially in the northwest, having invaded from Persia, 
the connecting country on the trail from Arabia the hotbed 
of Mohammedanism, and there was at one time a Moham- 
medan conquest, but now only every fifth person in this 
Brahman-beset peninsula is a follower of the great founder 
of Islamism, whose creed abominates idols, believing only 
in one God, and Mohamet his prophet, and whose creed 
taught from their Koran, or Bible, now absorbs the center 
of the Eastern Hemisphere — Persia, Arabia and Turkey be- 
ing the boiling pots, and their big halls of worship, the 
great white mosques of marble and onyx, domed and min- 
aretted, shine like reversed alabaster quarries in the Indian 
sunlight, and are scattered sparsely thruout India. 

On arriving at Calcutta we left the train, and took vic- 
torias with Hindus fore and aft and drove "in state" to 
the hotels dispersing ourselves to the different hostelries. 
I had an extremely large and lofty room on the ground 
floor at the Continental, with folding doors opening onto 
an arcaded promenade surrounding a pretty palm court; 
the floor was of inlaid colored tiling designed along the 
Mosaic art, rendering the room cool, and with the air cooled 
by its circulation thru the long lofty halls and out thru 
the still loftier windows, the heat was not oppressive. 

I was held captive by the foreign sensation. 

No screens were used, as I saw no flies, but heavy 
wire netting secured the room from intruders, and I slept 
with the windows flung back relishing the cool, balmy and 
palmy zephyrs of the exquisite and matchless Indian nights. 

What a relief to rest on steady ground once more, with 
a cessation of all motion, in a state of tranquility after days 
and nights on a shifting foundation. 



INDIA. 1^1 

The sea is never at rest. 

Next morning on going into the private bath, which 
attends these oriental rooms, I found the furnishings inside 
this little square concrete room with concrete floor and 
step, consisted of a commode, water faucet in the wall, and 
the cunning little Indian bathtub of most humorous pro- 
portions, being little larger than our laundry tubs and one 
has to fold down like a jack-knife for the ablution, the 
water escaping at all sides of the tub running all over the 
floor finding an outlet in a little drain at one end, 

'Twas wonderfully exhilerating after a fresh bath from 
a dusty journey, to roam these long cool hallways and 
arched passages, all with concrete floors which serve to 
allay the heat, while numerous native attendants do your 
bidding, saluting with a salaam, which is an oriental form 
of greeting wherein they bow low with the right palm 
against the forehead — and with what grace some of these 
iron statues acquit themselves. 

For meals, we were assigned to a private dining room 
upstairs, not minding the little chameleons racing across 
the walls, darting behind picture frames, peeking out at 
us, where small tables were presided over by tall thin black 
waiters, wearing white muslin pajamas and a long white 
blouse with broad red sash wound round and tied at the 
side, small turban cap, and feet bare ; I cannot recall seeing 
any bare of head either indoors or out. 

They administered with graciousness in their silent at- 
titude we designating our wants by pointing to the number 
opposite the articles wished for on the menu card for their 
convenience, for if any of them ever did study English they 
would not subject it to our comment. 

We were not permitted the native service in foods, 
deeming any radical change in diet conducive to indisposi- 
tion, so we were served along the lines of our accustomed 
cuisine on board ship. 

Altho we had access to the different odd and curious 
fruits and products and often indulged in them on the side, 
just to gratify our desire for things novel. 

Five meals are served during the day — chota hazri or 



1^2 WHIRL AROUND THE WORLD. 

early breakfast of tea or coffee with fruit served in your 
room at six, burra hazri or meat breakfast at eight to ten, 
tiffin at noon, then afternoon tea, and lastly, and of more 
consequence, dinner at from seven to nine. 

Electricity is used in all the hotels. 

On going to my room one night, I switched on the 
light to take a survey of the room, which had become a 
fixed precaution, there in the middle of the cool tiled floor 
sat six monstrous cockroaches — three inches long, as only 
the cockroache in India can grow — holding a caucus; I had 
heard about the immense size of the cockroaches of this 
country before coming; I gathered a weapon thinking to 
slay all with one blow, when they immediately took on a 
rotary motion and all escaped me. 

Safe to say I tucked the mosquito canopy carefully 
all round the bed that night. 

It was about three hundred years ago, or when Eliza- 
beth was queen, that the charter to a great English trad- 
ing association was given, called the East India Company, 
which syndicate had much to do with shaping the future 
of Hindustan. 

This company, formed in London, foresighted rich 
spoils in India and installed commercial settlements along 
the southeast coast where a grant of small territory was 
received from a Rajah near Madras, where the British im- 
mediately erected the fort of St. George and after a suc- 
cession of years of conflicts, unseated the Portugese, Dutch 
and French who had gained a footing on various territory 
in India, and finally overcame the struggle for influence 
over the native princes, which ultimately led, step to step, 
to the establishment of the British Empire, where we are 
now visiting, and later of the absorbing of the East India 
Company of two and a half centuries' fame, by vesting the 
government directly in the British crown, which was done 
about forty years ago, and soon after Queen Victoria was 
proclaimed Empress of India during the vice royalty of 
Lord Lytton, who was appointed by the crown and who 
ruled with authority as Victoria's substitute. 



INDIA. 133 

Under the name of Owen Meredith he gave vent to 
the beautiful poems of "Lucille" and '"Tannhauser." 

Fifteen years ago Lord Curzon was sent out a^ viceroy, 
taking his American wife (Miss Leiter, now dead) with 
him, which regal post he held six years, giving way to 
Lord Minto, all of whom portraits of each viceroy hang on 
the grand staircase in the massive government house in 
this city, which is a great rambling three-story white struc- 
ture, seemingly plain in contrast to the ornate style of In- 
dian architecture, and was erected one hundred and twenty 
years ago in the days of the East India Company, at a 
cost of one million pounds, or five million dollars, by the 
Marquis Wellesly, while he was governor general. 

Along back in 1756, soon after the East India Company 
had gained a settlement up in this city, there was an up- 
rising of the natives and an attack made by a large army, 
on the English, and they were forced to capitulate, and 
one hundred and forty-six were thrust into the Black Hole, 
or prison, in a room eighteen feet square with two small 
windows, where after a crowded night of torture, only 
twenty-three were found to be alive the next morning, and 
the m.emory of that multiple tragedy lives today thru all 
these hundred and fifty years, as we were taken to see 
the site of the death trap which now' fronts on an every- 
day thorofare, where the space of eighteen feet square is 
aP sealed over, surrounded by iron picket fence, with tablet 
above with inscription deploring this inhuman treatment 
Oi the non-suspecting English by the barbarous dusky tribe= 

It is uov/ asserted that had the prisoners engaged in 
a steady march around the cell, thereby keeping the air in 
circulation, they would have survived. 

But considering that only seventeen inches square 
was allotted to each individual victim, movement must have 
necessarily been slow. 

Many main streets and public places and building are 
given names after the succeeding English viceroys and gov- 
ernor generals, giving evidence of the foreign power domi- 
nant. 

As a whole, outside of minor uprisings in various in- 



;j^34 WHIRL AROUND THE WORLD. 

stances, the natives are loyal to the British crown tho they 
have transfered this royalty to three different rulers within 
a generation. 

From Queen Empress Victoria, whose death the first 
year of this century passed Edward VII to the British 
throne, and by virtue of this office became Emperor of In- 
dia, only to give way in a few years to his son King George 
V, who with his wife Queen Mary, in order to give them- 
selves prestige among their Indian subjects, had a second 
coronation performed at the Dubar at Delhi in 1911, which 
city in the Punjab in the northwest of India, one time the 
capitol and a city of two million, is again made the capitol. 

This removal of the capitol from Calcutta leaves many 
magnificent government buildings at a sacrifice in this city 
— grand structures all done in white. 

When one of these Dubars is held, which is a general 
reception in India by a British ruler, the Indian princes and 
also rulers of the small independent states make up a gorge- 
ous display, and the glittering processions are said to out- 
dazzle any other nation on the globe; great lines of the 
finest specimens of elephants with gold embroidered blan- 
kets draped all over them, with chains and necklaces of 
beads festooned from ear to ear, across their trunk, and 
with gold and jeweled bands at intervals on their tusks, 
which: have the points cut off and then gold tipt ; strings 
of large silver beads encircle their huge ankles, 

A native prince's wealth is reckoned by his elephants 
and jewels. 

On top of these elephants, strapt on, is the howdah, a 
little house, sometimes of solid silver with chased work, 
all open, in which sits his highness surrounded by half a 
dozen or more white-turbaned men servants hanging on 
the slight ledge of the howdah, and all towering three or 
four times the height above the crowd of dark-skinned 
picturesque turbaned bystanders, lined on either side by 
armed soldiers or guards. 

India has the advantage over us, in the weather, in 
that grand occasions can be planned weeks ahead without 
fear of any trickery of the weather. 



INDIA. 135 

I recall one whole "Mardigras" celebration in New Or- 
leans a few years ago where "Momus" and "Comus" pag- 
eants of beautiful glittering floats — the years work of 
mystic art, expense and skill became deluged each evening 
with our uncertain outbursts, and red satin dripping its 
murderous train on the white below, green shedding emer- 
ald tears on the yellow, tinsel hanging limp and trailing 
forlornly was the perspective from under a big date palm 
in a drenching rain. 

Not so with India's climate of iron-clad rules where 
burning-blazing sunlight reigns. 

Europeans are not any too numerous in this city, in 
fact, they are too scattering, most of them at the barracks, 
but one seldom meets them in walking on the street as 
they are mostly engaged in ofncialdom, and the modern 
appearance of the different cities bespeaks their progres- 
siveness in their fifty years at the helm. 

Railroads interspersing the whole country seems to 
have the effect of an awaking, while back off the railroads 
the aspect is certainly in the primitive. 

In this city there are beautiful thorofare and park- 
jways opened up, streets widened and park gardens char- 
acteristic of the Britains only, yet there is a certain ming- 
ling or native touch to all the equipments and etcetara that 
constrains you to realize you are in India. 

The climate as a whole, seems unsuitable to any but 
the dark race, and it is difficult for the Europeans to live 
here and be healthy unless in parts northern, where heat 
is not so great. 

The midday sun is merciless, but these oriental nights 
are matchless. 

In the mornings the shutters to the lofty windows are 
closed to bar the day's heated atsmosphere ; at night opened 
to admit the cooled air. 

The children born here of English parents, who are 
holding government offices or otherwise engaged are sent 
iDack to England while small, to grow in health and educa- 
tion, while many of the young folks of the native princes' 



136 



WHIRL AROUND THE WORLD. 



or of the higher caste are sent over to Oxford, England, 
for higher education. 

On account of the heat, the major portion of the travel- 
ing is done by night, and the coaches of the railways are 
equipt with water-cooled shutters drawn down over the 
windows — it is said the viceroy's special coach is fitted with 
tanks of cold water on the roof to which ice is added when 
procurable. 

Instead of all our varied weather fickleness called "sea- 
sons," they refer only to hot, cold and rainy seasons, tho 
the general appearance would indicate that the two latter 
are almost unknown. 

But I notice that considerable latitude is permitted the 
natives even under the crown's administration ; these thin 
bodied men lay along on the concrete sidewalks or door- 
steps of the public places, at noon or all night asleep, with 
no fear of being trodden on, by man, beast, vehicle or even 
sacred cow; they are as indifferent to the welfare of the 
nation as they are prone to succumb to the withering rays ; 
they wear as little protection as possible, some merely a 
width of muslin, once white, wrapt round their bodies and 
tucked in at the waist so as to leave all the fullness hanging 
in a bothersome way in front, or one will have on a long 
white shirt affair, another wears only a pair of white thigh 
pants, with his long black back exposed clear to his turban, 
which is wound around like a mop cloth, and in some cases 
almost as filthy. 

The roadside barber is one of the spectacles common 
on the street; the barber and "victim" both squat on the 
ground or sidewalk, or anywhere, shutting up like a jack- 
knife, their knees sticking above their shoulders something 
like a katy-did for their lean limbs are no larger at the 
thigh than at their coarse ankles, also their arms at the 
shoulder pit are as thin as their wrists. 

The barber unrolls his meager kit of tools from a dirty 
cloth onto the sidewalk, and as they face each other in 
this squatting posture the barber goes over the face of 
his black colleague with the razor; I noticed a pair of 
shears, soap and the ever brass vase of water. 



INDIA. ]^37 

Of course, there are modern barber shops in India, 
but this is the native version ; most all of the older Indians 
wear full growth of whiskers, even covering their cheek- 
bones, some of the higher caste carefully groomed. 

The street candy peddler vends his goods squatting 
on the sidewalk beside his tray of sweetmeats exposed to 
the dust and flyings, never quivering a muscle in his stolid, 
grave, expressionless face. 

The street fruit sellers carry their curious varieties of 
none too tempting fruits in big baskets on top of their 
much wound and wadded turbans on their heads. 

But . these lacking details only tend to heighten the 
picturesqueness of legendary India. 

It is characteristic — every act, movement, every feat- 
use of their existence, their custom, their complacency, all 
bespeak characteristic India. 

I cannot recall ever seeing a smile on any grown na- 
tive's face, never any loudness or looseness from these soft- 
treading, strate-backed, unapproachable, severe but passive 
expressioned beings of the every-day life of India. 

These dark men do not drag anim.als' loads thru the 
streets like the tough Chinaman in old Kathay; they are 
too thin and appear tco weak; this is done by bullocks 
mostly. 

I have seen pictures of the sacred cow, and here, in 
this city, they gather in herds and roam the sidewalks and 
streets and lay around at will, without molestation, under 
penalty of punishment by the gods. 

These are kept solely for their yield of milk and propa- 
gation, the bullocks only are drafted into service, pulling 
heavy loads thru the streets. 

They are of clean creamy color with ears laid back 
and mild eyes, and all the harness used is a yoke on their 
necks, in front of the monstrous hump that stands strata 
up on their shoulder, and a mall rope drawn thru their nose 
to guide, while the strate-backed Hindu sits behind them 
on the tongue of his heavy two-wheeled bamboo splint cov- 
ered cart, looking very like a piece done in bronze -so very 
rigid is he. 



138 



WHIRL AROUND THE WORLD. 




INDIA. 



139 



Tbey are also used to draw the Indian carriage, or 
reckla, which is a little four-posted affair, canopied and 
box-like on springs, with two ^heavy wheels, which the 
natives patronize. 

Again we saw them drawing a heavy four-wheeled, 
fancy top wagon, with domed top of richly colored hangings 
in the archways, of quite oriental peculiarity, in which the 
ladies of the Zenana were takink an airing — -the Zenana 
in India corresponds to the harem in the Arabian and Turk- 
ish Moslem lands. 

Another custom — we see a tall Hindu, almost dishabille 
save for his great white turban, wound without symmetry, 
yet comprising all the material for a good picture, in con- 
junction with the unflinchable expression of the wearer as 
he stops his carabao, the big black water buffalo at a way- 
side watering place and fills with water the two big skin 
water carriers, that hang on either side of the carabao — 
skins that at one time have encased a bullock, so large are 
they; this water. 

This water is disported thru the city in these skins, 
one leg of the animal skin forming the nozzle, which is 
re-enforced and laced with cords to pour qr shut off the 
water. 

A novel sight is the number of bheestis, which is the 
name for these vs^ater carriers, sprinkling the streets of 
Calcutta with water carried from the public concrete tanks, 
in dried goat skins strapt across their back, the water 
pouring out of what once formed a leg of the goat. 

At these same huge round public tanks in the center 
of the wide thorofares one can see the natives doing out 
their washing all round this tank, in the burning sun, slap- 
ping and pounding the clothes on the concrete walk that 
surrounds the tank, pouring water on them from huge 
jugs lifted out of the tank, afterward spreading them all 
around the tank on the gravel road to dry, the women sit- 
ting round on the ground and curb in leisure manner, wear- 
ing little clothing, or otherwise drapery, thrown over their 
heads and encircling their forms as only the Indians can 



140 



WHIRL AROUND THE WORLD. 




WELCOME FELLOWS IN THIRSTY INDIA- WATER CARRIERS— IN SKINS. 

— Photo by lindei'wood & Underwood. 



INDIA. 



141 



^^•ork, and manage this distinctive oriental drapery at all 
angles, and conform to their characteristic picturesqueness. 
We drove in' carriages to the "Burning Ghats." 
A ghat (pronounced "got") is a landing stairs or stone 
steps on the banks of rivers, termed burning ghats and 
bathing ghats, and they are numerous at intervals on both 
banks of the Holy Ganges thru the city of Calcutta, that 
stretches along the north bank, and also Mowrah, the big 
suburb just opposite, the two cities being connected by a 
floating, or pontoon bridge, a great wide busy, wormy art- 
ery for traffic and pedestrians, which I crossed often, to 
get a better view of the natives and their peculiar modes 
of transit. 

This huge trestlework is erected on boats, a numerous 
lot of low, flat, floating vessels that support the timbers 
of this aerial causeway that rises and falls with the flood 
tides and flows of the river. 

The Mohammedans inter their dead, here in India and 
elsewhere. 

The Hindus burn their dead, and it is asserted that 
this burning of the dead on the banks of the sacred Ganges 
has been the custom for centuries back. 

The bodies are wrapt in a white shroud and conveyed 
to the burning ghat, which is a small enclosure with num- 
erous ash piles and wood heaps scattered round, leading 
down to the edge of the river, on a stretcher of bamboo, 
the bereaved parties walking or straggling along behind, 
and sometimes carrying pieces of wood, for on reaching 
these ghats, pyres are built commensurate to the subject, 
by crossing and recrossing the wood to a height of two to 
three feet; the more sandalwood used by those who can 
better afford it. 

I must comment upon the sandalwood, for it plays a 
i^art in most everything over here. 

Along the Malabar coast in India, and also in the Indian 
Archipelago, is where the sandalwood grows and resembles 
privit; when the trunk is old in years the hard inner wood 
is of tannish yellow color, very hard and fragrant, and is 



242 WHIRL AROUND THE WORLD. 

offered for sale in small irregular cuts for its aromatic qual- 
ities to be used in clothes chests, and is also made into ex- 
tracts which is one of the most coveted oriental perfumes. 
The Indians, also the Chinese and Japanese are unex- 
celled in the skillful carving of this wood into the most dif- 
ficult and artistic also grotesque designs. 

I afterwards saw the highest type of this exquisite 
carving of sandalwood in the Osborne House in the Isle of 
Wight, which the loyal Indians had presented to their Em- 
press Victoria, Queen of England, having sent these match- 
less pieces over upon the occasion of her "Diamond Jubilee" 
which was celebrated a few years before her death. 

This sandalwood is also used for incense in the wor- 
.«!hip of the Brahmans and Buddhists. 

I watched these servants, almost nude, lay the corpse, 
stretcher and all, on top the pyre of sandalwood ; they piled 
more sandalwood across the body, poured oil around over 
all and with a bunch of lighted bamboo brush, set fire to 
the funeral pyre, and as it burned, the peerless aromatic 
wreathes of the sandalwood pervaded the air, offsetting 
any human odor that might have been created as the shroud 
was quickly burned, leaving one limb exposed where the 
foot had roasted to a bursting point, turning to a light tan 
color; if the wood holds out the body is burned to ashes 
which is thrown into the river just a few feet away; if 
partly charred, they are pushed off into the river where 
the big vultures ,or India's scavengers, pick the rem.aining 
flesh as it floats along down stream on its holy bed leaving 
only the white bones to fall to the bottom. 

I turned from this crude corpse-burning spectacle to 
look at other corpses that were laying on stretchers around 
■awaiting turns; I turned back the white shrouding over 
the head and saw a child of twelve with plump face but 
touchingly thin body and limbs; I turned back another, 
revealing an old woman whose wrinkled face and thinness 
bespoke a long life of depression and self-sacrifice. 

There was no emotion nor commotion among the na- 
tives, no outward signs of despair, no demonstrations of 
sorrow. 



INDIA. 



143 




WHO DIES ON THE RIVER GANGES— BURNING THE DEAD— INDIA. 

— Photo by Underwood & Underwood. 



144 



WHIRL AROUND THE WORLD. 



Some of the men were sitting around on tables rubbing' 
oil or ointment all over their bodies, leaving them shining^ 
like greased iron. 

We visited other ghats where the funeral pile was built 
inside of iron trays or cribs on wheels; this corralled the 
flames and heat until the bodies were entirely consumed. 

These were numerous all over the yards and presum- 
ably never grow cold as in a city of one and a quarter mil- 
lion, all ghats are busy at any time you chance to visit 
them; little heaps of ashes, cinders and charred bones are 
lying all round. 

Disposal of bodies in India follows death in a few 
hours. 

The bathing ghats were visited. 

To bathe is one of the essentials of Hindu existence, 
not from a sanitary standpoint, but from a ceremonial view- 
point, this feature conforming to the rules of their religion. 

They bathe before eating, before entering a temple, 
and upon other occasions, in fact, they would impress you 
as almost amphibious. 

There are eight of these bathing ghats on the Calcutta 
side and as many more on the opposite, or Howrah side; 
a pile of high pillars and arches mark these places where 
about twenty concrete steps from twenty to. thirty feet 
wide lead down to the very water's edge where hundreds 
of the dusky natives dip and wash and pour water with 
their brass water jugs or vases and wring their soiled drap- 
ery such little as they don. 

Sometimes the water is so riled you can scarcely dis- 
tinguish their dark backs in it. 

At one of these places there were a number of goats^ 
bullocks, and big black water buffalos wallowing and roll- 
ing around in the water right along with the natives; on 
festal days the streets leading to the ghats are crowded 
with bathers on their way. 

The river, up and down the ghats, is always full of 
water craft, from vessels of primitive and crude construc- 
tion to the modern steamers, for Calcutta is a busy port. 



INDIA. 145 

feeding India from the east, tho a hundred and forty two 
miles from the sea. 

We spent most a whole day in the enchanted grounds 
of the Botanical Gardens, driving among the illustrious 
palms and thru boulevards lined on either side with over- 
towering trees of unique and most peculiar species as are 
found only in India, the vapour arising from the hot sun 
beaming down on the persistent rank growth of the pro- 
fusely foliaged plants and trees, filled the whole atmosphere 
with a commingling of spicy odors almost stupifying us 
and we capitulated to its seductive charms, becoming actual 
conformists of Utopia. 

On down the scented avenues we swung, bringing up 
at the celebrated Banyan tree, where we walked under its 
great outspreading branches, posing for a picture as an 
ever impression of this wonderful, rare, and much prized 
ecentyicity of nature. 

I counted thirty-two in our party and we had scarcely 
got out of range of its great trunk. 

The peculiar feature of this banyan tree is the throw- 
ing down runners to the ground where they take root, from 
the strate-out branches that go right on growing out for 
a distance of another ten or fifteen feet and then send an- 
other runner strate down to the ground, and at the same 
time the limbs all around and two or three stories above 
are doing the same thing, many of these standing supports, 
or runners, support a limb forty to fifty feet high and so 
strate are they, that you think they are gas pipe and you 
marvel at the loftiness and area covered by the non-stop 
growth of this unusual tree, roving outward without a fixed 
destination, framing its own support as it wanders. 

This nomadic freak covers in circumference one thou- 
sand feet making it over three hundred feet to walk thru 
from one side to the other, all quite thickly covered high 
above with foliage; you could put a whole Indian village 
under it. 

During our stay in Calcutta, His Highness, the Maha- 



146 



WHIRL AROUND THE WORLD. 



rajah of Tagore extended us a reeception and entertain- 
ment at the Grand Hotel. 

The great dining room was cleared of all tables and in 
the center an oriental rug was laid on which about fifteen 
natives sat around in languishing attitude and entertained 
us with original music on their native musical instruments, 
which were queer looking objects of most curious type and 
•exquisite workmanship, responding to the fingering with 
doleful strains and plaintative airs, truly characteristic and 
affecting in its pathos. 

Fortunately, I was seated next to an Oxford graduate, 
an extremely handsome young Hindu of high caste, who 
had just returned from England, speaking English fluently, 
Vv^ho explained to me that it was music of India's very high- 
est class — instruments, perf orm.ers and composition, and 
that vv^hile the natives reveled in it, that since his having 
been in England, it no longer appealed to him.. 

The son of ''his highness," who was quite bulky for a 
Hindu, was "dressed" in white draped trousers, with rose- 
pink satin overshirt hanging like a sack from neck to below 
knees, with a vent at either side. 

I'hey all greet you v/ith a firm grip of the hand. 

The Maharajah is of very small stature, quite aged, 
very dark small features with a mustache, unostentatious, 
tho a wealthy owner of large estates — being a prince of 
high rank — and also possessor of magnificent palaces in 
Calcutta. 

All the rajahs, or independent rulers, hold vast estates 
with extensive wandering palaces, expressing the embodi- 
ment of extreme wealth, while those that are poor, are ''so 
poor." 

The native quarter in this city is made up of little 
dirty shops fronting on the streets, all open, with goods 
displayed, meager in stock, to the weather, dust and sun; 
over in behind these stores the family keeps house in a 
crude way, and they all lay along the sidewalks at any 
time in the day with scantiest of clothing on, and doze the 
heated hours away. 



INDIA. _ ]^47 

There are young girls carrying plump, perfectly nude 
babies astride their hips, and I find they are married at 
the age of from nine years up, for one of the rules of the 
Hindu religion is that girls must be married before, or at, 
the age of thirteen, it being deemed a disgrace for a father 
to have unmarried girls of over thirteen in his house. 

But it is said that females of India in the torrid zone 
attain their womanhood at the ages of nine and ten and 
that a woman of forty in the tropical zone is as old in con- 
stitution as one of sixty in the extreme latitudes ; so that 
accounts for the great number of very girlish mothers mov- 
ing about with their little plump issues astride their hips. 

I noticed the women were not as numerous on the 
streets as in other countries we visited, as women are not 
considered of as much importance in India as in other 
nations; they are very inferior to men, per the Hindus. 

The better class of the women wear bright colored silk 
draped all around and brot over the head in scarf fashion, 
the same uncut piece serving as gown and head-dress, and 
all edged with an inch border of black and high colors, 
which add so much to the graceful drape; no buttons or 
pins, and barefooted — always barefooted — the toes, often 
each one of both feet, weighted with silver rings with ex- 
tremely large handsome jeweled sets which, as they passed, 
gave out a sound as of the tinkling of bells, and again, of 
a clanking sound, their feet large broad and black, all sem- 
blance of arch given way to flatness, as they more shuffle 
along than walk, on the hot concrete walks which has cal- 
loused their soles to leather, as the weight of the heavy 
silver anklet in addition to the heavy rings retards any 
alertness. 

These anklets, often of priceless value, are really 'the 
most bewitching conceit of their idea of personal adorn- 
ment; they hang loosely round the anklet, some being an 
inch in diameter, and often an assortment of two to a half 
dozen are worn, but the lone massive silver one is far more 
fetching. 

The native women idolize jewelry and trinkets; I have 



148 



WHIRL AROUND THE WORLD. 




HINDU WOMEN— NOSE RINGS— INDIA. 

— Photo by Underwood & Under vvood. 



INDIA. 5^49 

seen numerous bracelets on their arms below and above 
theier elbows at a stretch of six inches each, made up of 
jeweled bands from one to two inches wide, then small 
wires, also chains and ropes of beads which are very artistic 
and well adapted to their original style of deportment, 
which is quite graceful, stolid and prepossessive with com- 
pact expression, but would appear barbarous in European 
countries. 

Some wear great silver rings or hoops four inches in 
diameter inserted is one side of their nose; these hang 
over their mouth and chin and would seem a menace in 
their everyday affairs; in a group of three women, all of 
them wore these rings and bracelets ; in another' group of 
four, three of them wore one-inch rings in the left nostril, 
while the fourth dangled the four-inch size; others wear 
jeweled buttons so thickly attached to their nose, with 
pearl drops hanging as to exclude all view of their upper 
lip and nostrils and they seem very demure and shy with 
retiring eyes and olive-brown skin drawn over well-wrought 
features, with strate black oiled hair parted in the center 
and pulled back, done in a knot. 

Often the rims of both ears are pierced all round with 
numerous one-inch beaded rings inserted, making them 
stand out with all the points of a barbarian. 

In one instance I became quite familiar with one sub- 
ject and lifted one of those four-inch hoops worn in the 
ear, and no wonder the hole on the lobe was torn down an 
inch long by long wearing the weighty burden, while she 
appeared quite indifferent as to the disfigurement. 

They impress you as walking statues, so immovable 
do they seem, so smothered in their uncanny religion which 
closes down over them excluding the f reeedom which women 
of other nations enjoy, and from going thru the native or 
lower class district of India's big cities and peering into the 
hovels of her peoples, convinces one that ages will have 
elapsed ere they are brot up to a standard and sanitary 
point of existence. 

If they realize this, they are still impassive. 



;J^50 WHIRL AROUND THE WORLD. 

I have stopt in the streets and observed these peoples 
from a close point — some almost withered skeletons, espe- 
cially the more aged ones with their low wrinkled brows 
and protruding jawbones holding few remaining muchly ex- 
posed snags of teeth, their shriveled bodies bespeaking food 
denials rather than hardships, for nobody works hard in 
India — just a slow continuous languorous dragout, for the 
climate will not permit anything pertaining to strenuous- 
ness and taking into account the great multitude of persons 
there are to do things, there is scarcely need of rapid pro- 
ceedure. 

Taking leave of India from the east side to revisit 
it later on the west, we packed our tropical clothes to take 
to the sea again, going still lower into the torrid zone al- 
most to the equatorial line once more. 

High-turbaned drivers escorted us from Calcutta to 
the private train, where, after a couple of hours, we ar- 
rived at our aforesaid temporary improvised causeway — 
taking the place of the wave-swept one on the eve of our 
arrival — to board the tender, but on being slightly delayed 
we found the tide had crept shyly in and was engulfing 
our landing pier and with each wave the depth grew more 
alarming and the situation more humorous, as 'twas con- 
sistent to act at once without argument or protest which 
culminated in a parade of ''foreigners" shorn of shoes and 
hosiery wading the tide with bounds and leaps, supported 
by guides and guards, to the amusement of the more for- 
tunate ones who had crossed on low tide. 

But seeking the engine rooms of the tender to avert 
any chill the later ones separated from the crowd; while 
a few of us went on top deck to view for the last time, and 
to review in solitary meditation the sacred and mysterious 
Ganges so holy to this people and to linger on its traditions 
which this dark race have come to regard as laws. 

Their exisstence impelled by the one thot — to die by 
the Ganges. 

The famed Ganges, bursting thru the Himalayan 
passes and gathering in all drainage to swell its course to 



INDIA. 151 

the lands end, where it is relieved by discharging all in the 
Bengal Bay. 

As we steam along on its turbid waters on the way 
to our ship that is waiting for us far down, I retrace it to 
its source two thousand miles away where it begins its un- 
ceasing flow of water unsullied, pure as, and of the snow 
that crowns the Himalayas, thirteen thousand feet up in 
the mountains, but rushing unchecked down into the valley 
soon becomes worldly and its spotless waters bemirched, 
tainted, with disease as the defiler, with floating corpses 
per tradition the polluter, with all the corruption of the 
important cities that have attached themselves to its banks 
like cancers, that rends the whole system, as Cawnpore, the 
modern city of 200,000 that added a scarlet liquid flow in 
1857, when during the Indian mutiny, the British forces 
were compelled to surrender upon conditions agreed, that 
they were free to leave, where after embarking with their 
families in boats on the Ganges, the mutineers fired on 
them, killing many and taking, the helpless as prisoners 
back to the city, where, on learning of another British ap- 
proach, the prisoners were slaughtered and thrown into a 
well where nov/ a mem.orial in the way of a pinnacled stone 
wall with a doorway leading into, where a white marble 
angel, given by Queen Victoria, stands immediately over 
the fatal well, and beautiful gardens surround the monu- 
ment, where only Europeans alone can enter, a fine mark 
of British sympathy to their own peoples' pitiful fate. 

Further on down stream is the big sacred city of 
Benares, the pilgrimage of all India, and the headquarters 
of their Hindu religion, where devotional journeeys present 
on "all roads lead to Benares" aspect, as the followers of 
Brahma, comprising all sorts and conditions of these dusky 
men, women and children by the thousands, clad and un- 
clad, flock to bathe and lave in the Holy Ganges whose 
banks at this point are lined with bathing ghats, thus add- 
ing to the foulness of the stream that was spotless in its 
embryo, as it drifts on easterly almost five hundred miles 
to where it answers as a cleanser to a degree for this big 
port we have just left — Calcutta. 



152 



WHIRL AROUND THE WORLD. 



Here the salt tide rushes in from the bay to meet this 
contamination, carrying it out to sea where it is converted 
into a beautiful briny-blue and the filth is silted to the 
bottom as it sways and rocks and heaves and swells in its 
ever restlessness. 

As we steamed out on this heaving plain of ocean I 
remembered that we were exactly on the opposite side of 
the world, Calcutta being one of the four cardinal points 
of the world, with Chicago (nearest my home) , and London 
and the center of the Pacific Ocean being the other three. 

Three days we traversed the Coromandel coast down 
the east side of India, which is sandy with no harbours and 
the surf lashes the shore, making the landing of goods and 
passengers from the big trading vessels almost impossible, 
were it not for the skill of the aquatic natives who run 
these waves from steamer to shore on a sort of raft of 
three logs of twenty-foot lengths lashed together and rowed 
by two men, and is called a catamaran. 

Another like conveyance is called the masoola boat — 
a big heavy hull made strong to withstand the pounding 
surf, standing high out of the water and is rowed by as 
many as sixteen oars by as many natives clad only in hip- 
cloth looking like little black ants as they work and tug 
with these almost unmanagable crude constructions. 



153 



CEYLON. 



We neared Ceylon, the little egg-shaped island that 
makes up a part of the minor British-Asian territory and 
is just one-third the size of the state of Missouri, barely 
detached from the downward projecting point of India by 
Palk Strait and a chain of reefs and sand bars called Adam's 
Bridge from the supposition of the Mohammedans that 
Adam escaped into this island of Ceylon from India via 
this causeway when driven out of Paradise. 

And to further their belief in Adam's one-time pres- 
ence, there is in the interior a cone-shaped mountain rising 
seven thousand feet, where on top, is a hollow depression 
five feet long resembling a man's foot which the Moham- 
medans attribute as that of Adam. 

Also the Buddhists assert it is from here that Buddha 
acended to Heaven leaving a gigantic footprint as evidence. 
- And again, the Brahmans, or followers of Hindu reli- 
gion, believe it to be the footprint of Siva, the third god 
of the Hindu trio that go to make up Brahmanism, as ex- 
plained heretofore. 

Lack of time prevented us making a trip to this legend- 
ary tower of the air, altho only forty-five miles from our 
seaport, Colombo, but we were informed that pilgrimages 
are continually made up the steep ascent by the faithful 
of these different creeds where they present their offer- 
ings, consisting in most part of the beautiful rhododendron 
flowers, to the sacred footprint. 

'Twas late in the afternoon of the third day's sailing 
on the Indian Ocean when we rounded the coast of Ceylon 
and drew up inside the breakwater that forms the harbour 
at Colombo. 

Days and nights on the warm Indian Ocean where the 
day's glowing equatorial sun rendered all passengers life- 



154 



WHIRE, AROUND THE WORLD. 



less, heedless of anything save the drone of the engines 
below and the busy whir of the electric fans and the clink- 
ing of the numerous beer-steins in the smoking saloon as 
they were constantly replenished in the effort to keep the 
system at a normal degree of coolness, and after the sun 
was fully submerged in the ocean after lingering on the 
dark horizon like a red-hot oversized cannon ball void of 
any radiation, cots were stretched upon the promenade 
deck, and after eleven o'clock many animated pajamas and 
kimonas were seen flitting along the decks in the moonlight, 
having deserted their berths and privacy for the cool sea 
breezes under the canopy of stars. 

The approach to Colombo is one of magnificence and 
we almost scented the spicy odor far out as we scanned 
the sandy beach encircled with a variety of palms which 
the day's relentless heat caused to send out an unlimited 
aroma. 

The beach is narrow, as the abundant growth of cocoa 
and other palms reach almost to the verge of the great 
blue, leaving only a glowing yellow streak of sand, clear and 
scintilating in the sun, as the blue waves roll up on it one 
after the other in long unbroken lines as far as the eye can 
see, in its natural wild unspotted freedom, not having yet 
yielded its restful beauty to the more modern money traf- 
fic that beset our beaches of the States, which are strewn 
with casinos and peanut hulls and broken piling and bath 
houses and board walks, and after every available inch on 
shore is taken up they send runners out to ssa in the way 
of piers on which are stationed all kinds of money-making 
features and the slogan of "clam chowder" vies with the 
steam calliope on the east coast and the call of the sea 
lions on the west, and if the sands primarily were yellow, 
they are, especially at Coney, deplorably discolored at 
present. 

Bounding inside the breakwater, which is artificial and 
of enormous sw-eep, we were met by a tug of the harbour, 
where, after considerable ramming of our ship's sides by 
this padded-nosed tug we were buffeted in line along with 
other great ships, and tied to a can-buoy with long cables 



CEYLON. 155 

fore and aft, for we were to remain on board, going ashore 
next morning. , 

These huge can-buoys are of heavy boiler iron, much 
riveted to form an airtight cask, and are anchored to the 
bed of the harbour with long cables where, floating, they 
bobble and toss with the buoyancy of the shifting surface 
a limited distance from their moorings, on until a ship 
comes along to tie up. 

'Twas delightfully cool way out here in the harbour, 
where sleep was defered till almost morning as we promen- 
aded the topmost deck and viewed the different water craft, 
their hugeness outlined in the night sky, with their miriads 
of electric lights streaming from the port holes out across 
the water, just ruffled enuf by the busy, fussy smaller craft 
exchanging anchorage, to render a twinkling surface sur- 
rounded by the massive stone, wave-resisting wall topt here 
and there by short, stout towers of lighthouses which were 
on duty signaling their guiding messages out to sea. 

All was quiet save the low lap of the waters against 
the vessel, and the swish of the passing craft manned sil- 
ently without toot of horn or blast by these dark skinned 
Singalese of taciturn demeanor. 

Next morning v/e came on deck to view our new sub- 
ject — Ceylon, the leafy isle; we dropt down the side of the 
big ship into a tender, steaming across the harbour, land- 
ing at the jetty, where we took carriage drives over the 
city. 

Colombo, the capital and sea port of Ceylon has a 
population of 175,000, made up of Singalese, (as the na- 
tives of Ceylon are called) Tamils, who have migrated across 
from India and Europeans ; the latter conducting the official 
duties, as this island belongs to England and counts one 
of her East India colonies, since she had the Dutch, who 
had wrested it from the Portugese, to evacuate, and it is 
presided over by a governor and councils, who sit at Co- 
lombo, where the government buildings are of substantial 
proportions, and has two fine first class hotels and most 
excellent stores. 



156 



WHIRL AROUND THE WORLD. 




CEYLON. ]^57 

An extensive fort is built, and this contains many of 
the best houses, while along the sea is the Black Town, 
where the Singalese live and carry on business. 

Colombo is one of the cleanest cities we have visited, 
with broad well-kept streets where the natives rather prefer 
walking in preference to the sidewalks, in fact, in all these 
dark countries I have noticed the native pedestrians almost 
invariably keep to the street, and the rick-shaws (for we 
once more have them with us as a conveyance, which seems 
right at home cycling along this sylvan coast) the bullock 
carts with their homely hood cover of woven bamboo grasses 
held down neatly with bamboo splints, on two wheels trund- 
ling along heavily freighted with tea boxes and other goods, 
the automobiles and street cars all travel along side by side 
in this country of mixed ideas — the primitive and the pro- 
gressive, the original and the modern. 

There are aged stone walls outlining some of the thoro- 
fares with the fresh green fronds of the palms overhanging. 

Palms everywhere— always palms of some one of the 
many varieties. 

Their bright green hues contrasting well with the yel- 
lowish sandy streets and the dark race. 

All this side of the world is dark. 

The Singalese differ from the Hindus in that they are 
short of stature — tho like the Indians are very, very thin 
with fine cut features and handsome dark eyes, very white 
teeth, long black hair usually done up on top of their head 
with a round tortoise comb sitting round on top which cer- 
tainly looked queer for men, and especially those that af- 
fect European clothes — as those who are engaged in cater- 
ing to the English speaking populace, and who have the 
big business places, for it seems they are born traders or 
merchantmen, as they are clever to cunning in soliciting 
sales of their wares,, among the most interesting of which 
is the gem traffic, for Ceylon has long been famous for its 
rubies, saphires and pearls — and we were all attracted by 
their multi-colored rays flashing in the lights, for who does 



158 



WHIRL AROUND THE WORLD. 



not love beautiful polished stones, especially colored ones 
with odd cuttings and curious oriental settings. 

We would visit these gem-shops almost nightly — for 
night under electric light is jewelry's realm — to admire 
and marvel at the iridescence and art peculiar to the East 
Indian's dexterity. 

Many of our company fell to the luring charms of the 
limpid stones and the sheen of the pearls and parted with 
many rupees in consequence. 

The Singalese women affect much jewelry, but are 
more artful in their adornment than the Tamils or Hindus 
who, like the Tamils in India run the full gamut in the 
matter of decoration; their dress whether of silk worn by 
the better class or of foully white of the poor or coolie 
class, is merely a drapery wound round and brot up over 
the left shoulder leaving the right arm and shoulder ex- 
posed, with rings and huge drops in their noses, hanging 
below their mouths in some instances, and dozens of differ- 
ent styles of bracelets and necklaces, and often the rings 
on each toe is connected to the heavy silver anklet by a 
chain from each toe leading up to the anklet. 

The children of the better class are painfully burdened 
with heavy beaded and jeweled bands around their heads 
and across their foreheead with heavy tassels of beads and 
silver hanging from each ear, and necklaces of enormous 
beads, while the children of the poorer class wear only a 
string of beads around their little ebony tubby stomachs, 
always perfectly nude. 

Their hands are very thin, and their feet very large 
and fiat and their hair shines in its oiled condition, which 
they must needs resort to, else the parching sun would turn 
it into hemp. 

Of course, there are many cases where men, women 
and children are unkept — horrible examples of slovenliness 
and squalor and live in long rows of hovels, but thru it all 
there is the pleasant smile on the little plump faces of the 
younger ones and their bright eyes fairly beam. 

We spent some time at the native markets, walking 



CEYLON. ;][59 

thru them, examining, even to buying some of their singular 
fruits and vegetables; their wares are piled around on the 
ground, the smaller in low baskets and pans and this is all 
slightly protected from the sun's singeing rays by make- 
shifts of stalls of upright poles, on which is stretched canvas 
of dingy hue, old rags, piece of woven bamboo and roofing. 

Pigeons, unmolested, and tattered children scramble 
in contest for the cast off fragments or refuse of sales. 

In this market of wonders, the most freakish fruit 
which, on account of its heft was lying round on the ground 
was the jak-fruit. 

This is as large as, and the shape of, our muskmelons, 
but with bright green warty rind like a hedge apple, meat 
yellow, full of seeds which are roasted and eaten as a great 
favorite of the East India peoples; this great melon-shaped 
fruit grows right out promiscuously on the big bulky trunk 
of the lofty jak-tree, hanging singly on a short stem. 

On the streets are seen men carrying four bunches of 
bananas, two on each end of a long slab of bamboo slung 
on each man's shoulder vending to the street populace. 

Mount Lavinia is the beach resort of Colombo — only a 
short distance by rail; a fine big airy hotel stands just 
above a small cliff where the surf booms and bursts into 
sprays on the rocks at its feet; the view is glorious, and as 
I sat under a salt-breeze swept palm, the swaying leaves 
emitting a crackling sound, sipping a huge glass of ice tea 
— of Sir Thomas Lipton's tea, the English lord of regatta 
renown, who owns immense tea plantations here and in 
India — I reflected on the unceasing pounding of these waves 
that have rolled in here for ages, never missing a cog, forced 
to make their run ; impelled by the power of pressure they 
rush in clamorously, and will continue to do so for ages to 
come and the silent black natives will continue to bob up 
at unexpected places or peer out of the dark cocoanut thick- 
ets, or, scantilly clad, maneuver their crude boats with bal- 
ance-log at one side with matting sail, out thru the surf 
and between the rocks. 

We took a picture of some of these old sea salts that 



1QQ WHIRL AROUND THE WORLD. 

probably exist only on the shore, never having had a peep 
into the interior, from the appearance of their well cured 
hides and facial expressions which bear all the earmarks 
of our alleged forefathers. 

Far down and outlining the rounding coast, are in- 
numerous coconut trees so densely thick and dark as to 
exclude all ray of light, the bent and twisted bodies of the 
very near ones curving out over the treacherous deep, giv- 
ing evidence of many a struggle with sea storms. 

One of the blissful native plights is the loam huts 
set back in these dark coco groves, the tall whitish bodies 
towering forty feet or more above the heavily thatched 
roofs that often have quite a green growth sprouted out, 
especially where the children do not use the roofs for a 
playground. 

But I noticed there are generally a few cocotrees that, 
thru stress of weather, have matured inclining, and up and 
down these the litle brown naked children chase each other, 
and one can hardly distinguish them from the tame monkey 
at the top. 

We went by train up to Kandy which is a charming 
little city right in the center of Ceylon about seventy-five 
miles from Colombo and sitting on the bank of a beautiful 
lake, has gorgeous surroundings. 

Grand were the carriage drives along Lakeside promen- 
ade and out thru the avenues of towering palms of rarest 
species, thru cinnamon gardens, under the giant feathery 
bamboo, by the big broad-leaved breadfruit trees, along 
roads thru rubber tree groves, under the huge nutmeg trees 
with their shining leaves, by the areca palm — the specie 
that yields the betel nut that all the East, male and female, 
chew with lime, conducing expectoration, leaving the ap- 
pearance of blood along the lips and trickling down, almost 
causing nausea to onlookers. 

This is one of the filthy habits over here, like tobacco 
chewing in our States. 

An abundance of everything known to the tropical 
world grows to its limit here, a perfect labyrinth of bowers 



CEYLON. 1Q1 

in this fertile valley up here amid the grandeur of the 
wooded hills. 

How different this is in comparison to the solitary lone- 
liness of the long sweep of the coast line far below, where 
the moan of the restless ocean mingles with the sough of 
the coco fronds swaying in the salty atmos. 

Ceylon possesses many interesting features to world 
travelers and I'm convinced that traveling, with study and 
observation is the most dependable way to acquire a knowl- 
edge of geography and history — and many other things, for 
that matter. 

Ink heleps to ease one's mind, and furnishes an outlet 
for the accumulation whether recognized or not. 

A tourist has the advantage over the natives of the 
different countries in that on pain of restriction of their 
laws of society much is denied them, while the tourist is 
seeking the topography of the world and what man's hand 
has wrot to attract or commemorate — a blending of nature 
and artificiality? 

The defying tourist, like a whimsical butterfly, gathers 
the situation at one point and flits on to another, all the 
time adding to her budget of knowledge — wandering at will, 
regardless of criticism or propriety. 

While the English guests of the big Queen's Hotel in 
Kandy, where we were stopping, were sipping their four 
o'clock tea according to the conventions of polite society, we 
were investigating the "Palace of the Tooth," which is a 
Buddhist temple, wherein a single tooth, deemed that of 
Buddha is reared on a shrine, the most sacred of the Bud- 
dhist world, where great reverence is paid to this mark of 
his presence, Ceylon is of Buddhist belief same as China 
and Japan, tho China has alternately persecuted and fav- 
ored it. 

Ceylon has numerous temples and they are filled with 
iinages of Buddha, carved and moulded of various woods, 
stones, marbles and metals and of small to colossal size, 
where the worship simply consists of prayers and offerings 
of flowers and perfumes before these images — all idea of 
God absolutely banished from Buddhism. 



162 



WHIRL AROUND THE WORLD. 



Sunday is unknown. 

Up here among the hills, the governor's house is one 
of the finest in Ceylon; the government brick works are 
here, for there must be some employment for these peoples 
— where it seems half the population live leisurely. in the 
streets, all semblance of haste being blotted out of their 
everyday world. 

Agriculture is the vocation of three-fourths of the 
population and the great rice fields climb almost to the 
mountain tops and make a panorama not soon forgotten, as 
we circled round these terraced beds on our way up to 
Kandy, rising higher and higher up to the mountainous in- 
terior, where the jungles begin, and slope down the east 
side, and where wild animals run at will from neglect of 
these natives to develop the possibilities. 

We were told that elephants are quite numerous and 
that the government issues license for their capture. 

Bears, leopards and wild hogs are in the jungles. 

That it is the home of the monkey was evidenced by 
the great number we would see — but cocotrees and monkeys 
are co-partners anywhere. 

Armadillos are caught and when divested of their vital 
parts, their armored shells are inverted and make beauti- 
ful receptacles, ranging from one to two feet in oblong size. 

The porcupine is another hunted animal and their quills 
that grow out on their backs are removed and split in two, 
turned downward and laid close together, form a spotted 
black and white ridged covering for all kinds of work boxes, 
tables and cabinet work, framed with the fine black ebony 
wood ,which tree reaches its acme here; the wood hard, 
almost to a bone and polished, carved and inlaid with pearl 
from the pearl fisheries which abound just up the coast in 
the Mannar Gulf, or ivory inlaid from the elephant tusks 
just out of the jungles, furnishes employment for the na- 
tives who are favored with patience. 

Many of our passengers bought of these novel, hand- 
wrot conceits, both products and ideas native. 

Here is where we saw so many Birds of Paradise and 



CEYLON. Ig3 

other curious birds with gorgeous plumage, trailing and 
waving in all the brilliant colors— and with all this and the 
exuberant growth of greenery almost smothering the little 
island, why not, like the natives call it — ^the ^'seat of Para- 
dise." 

The island has about two hundred miles of railroad, 
the trains equipt with splendid little compartment coaches, 
and there is an excellent system of automobile roads of 
macadam, steam rolled, with rest houses or as the natives 
call them, dak-bungalows, which really are lodges or ac- 
commodation places for the traveling public stationed along 
the auto roads at intervals of seven to twelve miles and 
are maintained by the government with a keeper in charge. 

In some parts they are whitewashed, with thatched 
roofs, and of few rooms and always the veranda surround- 
ing; each room is provided with a bathroom adjoining, 
where is a huge wooden tub with water and the price per 
head is only one rupee — about thirty-three cents — per night. 

There are sheds for the machines, automobiling 
fast becoming the popular means of sight-seeing in all these 
countries, but we were advised only light cars could be 
used advantageously in the interior owing to the steep 
grades, where if once stuck in the sand the primitive har- 
ness of the oxen will not suffice for a boost uphill. 

Horses are as scarce here in Ceylon as elephants in 
our States, and the only conveyance known is the huge 
ox cart with its great hooded top of woven bamboo drawn 
by the zebu oxen or Indian cow that has two big humps on 
its shoulders, and a train of these moving slowly along the 
well-paved streets or an up-curve is certainly a typical 
oriental depiction. 

Steaming out of the Indian Ocean into the smooth 
Arabian Sea along the west coast of India on our way to 
Bombay, we kept to our deck chairs, whiling the warm 
days away, for 'twas very warm as we were only a few 
degrees away from the equator and any energy on our 
part was susceptible to complete collapse. 

Skimming along on the glassy surface, the richness 



|g4 WHIRL AROUND THE WORLD. 

of the palm-laden island just left was ever foremost in 
reverie. 

The palms the world over being the most interesting 
of all vegetable" plants on account of their peculiarity of 
drastic outline eased off by the tuft of feathery leaves in 
various forms. 

There are hundreds of species and it looked very like 
they were all here in these islands in the South Seas that 
we have been traversing for months. 

It is claimed that not a single specie exists that has 
not some useful property; we all know that these coffee- 
colored natives can live off the cocoa palm — build his hut 
of the trunk and cover it with layers of the leaves or fronds, 
as is evidenced in passing thru the country ; food in various 
forms is obtained from the rich kernel dried or otherwise, 
oil or lard is prest from the same for making candles and 
soap, inside the kernel is a pint or more of white sweetish 
juice or liquid called milk which we often drank at the 
stations in preference to the water available ; the hard shell 
surrounding the kernel is made into dippers, cups and other 
receptacles, carved into combs, forks and spoons; the thick 
stringy fibrous coat that surrounds this hard shell (pre- 
sumably protection from bursting open on its sixty-foot 
fall) is woven into cloth, but clothing is unnecessary in 
this clime, and is also women into matting, made into ropes, 
lacings and brushes, while the fronds or leaves are made 
into baskets, brooms, mats and a variety of useful things. 

I repeat this to impress the importance the palm plays 
to the ingenuity of the dark races; the trunks are made 
into boats with the matting serving as sails and are used 
on the treams and along the shores of these small island 
countries where there is an oversupply of natives and a 
shortage of progress. 

Household furniture, of course, is unknown among the 
primitive they prefering a squatting posture, where their 
black nude knees often reach their ears, so thin are they. 

But some rude articles of furnishings are made of these 
same coco trunks and in addition to the above uses that 



CEYLON. , lg5 

this palm cntributes to there is also a coarse sugar made 
of the juice that is extracted by boring into the trunk and 
allowing the sweetish juice to evaporate. 

Again this same sap, by distilling, becomes the bever- 
age or spirituous liquor of these orientals and is called 
"arack." 

Another palm, and bi giant proportions, is the Talipot 
palm which sends out our palm leaf fans at a height of often 
a hundred feet, and one of the awesome sights is the great 
tuft of fans growing out from the stupenduous tops, as 
we viewed them here in their native home in Ceylon grow- 
ing in wild state along with other towering trees, and any 
one visiting Ceylon will be taken aback by going thru the 
avenues of these huge sheaf y freaks in Peradenya Gardens 
where is the Botanical garden of the isle, being a suburb 
of Kandy where the highest type of all specimens pertain- 
ing, is brot out. 

The Travelers' palm is another that will attract atten- 
tion in its peculiarity of long fringed leaves springing up 
from near the ground and spreading in one great fan. 

The m^agnificence of this exotic display of verdancy and 
brilliant blossoms and foliages of this perfumed island will 
dwell long in the faculty of the "globe trotter." 

The succession of rice paddies ascending in steps up 
the hillsides, the trail of the tea plantations over the hilly 
tracts, for what coffee is to the Island of Java, tea is to 
the Island of Ceylon — these represent the commercial side. 



166 



INDIA. 



After days of beautiful sailing we drift into Bombay 
harbour. 

With all the land of India at its disposal, Bombay is 
crowded out on the extreme point of a long narrow island- 
peninsula only three miles broad, projecting and facing into 
the Indian Ocean where the tide laves its very feet — or 
would were it not for the great sea wall surrounding. 

Why do our important cities covet the sea? 

With a waste of land for safe building lying up state, 
New York, the second city in the world, divides honors 
between building seaward and skyward, the latest steel 
tower rising fifty-five stories in the air while the area of 
that part of New York encroaching on the surrounding sea 
would run up in figures. 

As yet the city has been immune from holocaust. 

San Francisco defiantly heaps monuments on the little 
sharp peninsula -projecting seaward, tho the target for 
seismic outbursts; while Galveston goes one better, ignor- 
ing the big state of Texas hies herself off to a little island 
out in the spasmodic gulf barely connected to the mainland 
by a two-mile artificial causeway where at times she is 
subjected to a drenching from disastrous tidal waves, de- 
spite the precautions of a mammoth sea wall surrounding. 

Likewise, Bombay with her million of peoples, almost 
entirely surrounded by water and at the mercy of the In- 
dian Ocean which threatens overflow, risks her welfare to 
a series of long walls and embankments at great expense 
and labor. 

The harbour or inlet of the sea, is on the east of the 
city of Bombay (which means "good harbour") and is 
floating full of busy watercraft, while the waves of the 



INDIA. 157 

ocean sweep it on the west in a grand curve forming an 
open and inviting beach basking in the sun, and encircling 
this long curve is the famous wide driving thorofare, the 
"''Queen's Road" lined with rows of palms and acacias with 
the sheen of the sea on one side and handsome modern build- 
ings on the other. 

Again and again we drove by carriage or auto along 
this extravagantly favored boulevard, which is the most 
appreciated of all Bombay's pleasure assets — then on up 
higher and higher thru the driveway of palms and over- 
hanging cliffs and embankments all covered with foliages 
till we reached the top of Malabar Hill, where is the "Hang- 
ing Garden" a romantic mass of rambling specimens of 
greenery suspended over one of the reservoirs. 

This hill appears one terraced park, where the view 
by moonlight of the city below, the great towers of the 
Hindu, temples interspersed thruout, the outline of the un- 
rivaled architecture all encircling the great shining scope 
of Back Bay with its restless waves playing and purling on 
the beach, is ineffecable. 

High above the heated city we traced the moonlit 
shadowy paths while the surf lashed the walls below, and 
automobiles hummed in their rush to and fro thru palm 
bounded Queen's Road and banyan lined Esplanade, dis- 
cernible by the trail of the electric lighting — ^for day in 
Bombay is turned into night by the alluring night climate 
drawing the people into the open, as a visit to this city will 
attest. 

Just over there on the coast stands the great silent 
Imissionary — the lighthouse of Colaba — is all solitariness; 
a grim monster of warning, that, of course, of mariner 
be not rightly persued, disaster results. 

Bombay is the European gateway to all India. 

All the ocean steamers call at this important port for 
passenger and commercial purposes, for India can only be 
reached by boat, as, tho miles and miles of railroads are 
in operation in India, under British supervision, none leads 
out to the surrounding countries; it stops when it gets to 
the border line, because Britain does not own Thibet, Turk- 



168 



WHIRL AROUND THE WORLD. 



estan, Aghanistan and Baluchistan the countries that sur- 
round India on the north curve, all else being water. 

The big mountain range, the Himalayas lies along the 
north border and is impenetrable for railroads, the range 
being twice as high as the Alps. 

Nature made this great harbour ; it is said it can shelter 
the navies of half the world without inconvenience, and this 
port serves the needs of half of all India. 

There are factories here, and the merchants are enter- 
prising. 

Great massive stone structures stretching along the 
bund commanded our attention long before disembarkation, 
and all about the harbour is a forest of masts and funnels. 

Across the city is the military cantonment which, ow- 
ing to the extreme confidence in their loyalty, only a few 
infantry and artillery are maintained by the British. 

But Bombay, city of one million and the birthplace and 
home of Rudyard Kipling, the English author, was not al- 
ways the "City of Palms and Palaces." 

There was strife in supremacy ; sickness from pestilen- 
tial swamps before the sea was shut out ; ravages of pirates 
had reduced the population until the power of the natives 
was broke, and the British progress sped on. 

Railways led out to all parts, linking the large cities 
and on across the country to Calcutta on the opposite shore. 

Added to the onward movement was the cotton re- 
turns, which during the struggle of our North and South 
in the sixties, the world's supply was cut off and India was 
the only country which could supply the deficiency, and the 
war making prices soar, money poured into this city until 
the peasants were amazed even at their sudden wealth to 
the point that they shod their bullocks and tired their carts 
with silver, and speculation ran wild until Lee's surrender 
at Richmond, and the bubble bursted. 

Then began, with this reaction a more solid and sub- 
stantial growth, and the city has expanded until, with sani- 
tation and drainage and its industries, Bombay has become 
the best governed city in India. 



INDIA. 169 

Now they are building docks at a cost of three million 
of dollars which will make Bombay the best equipt port in 
Asia where largest of liners can disembark their passengers 
at any stage of the tide and not have to leave them a mile 
out in the deep sea as we have ours, and have brot our 
grips to spend a week at the big beautiful Taj Hahal Hotel 
while we explore all the intereting sights which this ancient 
land and modern city has to offer. 

Since com.ing here, I find this port the most convenient 
point to commence to see India, as the many railways and 
access to the sea will ditribute one to all or any part of 
this mystical, superstitious .and peculiarly religious and 
aged slow country, yet at the same time containing the 
finect specimens of hand-wrot landmarks, as, palaces by 
their kingly spenders, the last word in jeweled pagodas^ 
and monuments to the departed, such as the Taj Mahal, 
which has become a world famous tablet as the mausoleum 
to his favorite queen by the Shah Jehan during his Moham- 
medan reign at Agra two hundred and fifty years ago, and 
which wonderful execution of magnificence in white marble 
which required twenty thousand men seventeen years to 
accomplish what it is novv^ ref ered to as a "dream in marble," 
a "poem in stone." 

Thus amidst the poverty, sets these diamond fields. 

The descriptions of these bejeweled and marble affairs 
would fill volumes, and their values v/ould fill treasuries. 

Railroads are thickest skirting the Himalayas.. 

Leading out to the northwest is Srinager, in the "vale •. ■■'' 
of Cashm.are," around which is centered Moore's "Lalla.-; .■., ■;■:> 
Rookh," the gorgeous oriental poem that holds one to^-lthe ; 
end where a most beautiful surprise avv^aits them.- ■ ^ /■■;:: 

In visiting this country, even if on6 sought ' hot hiil^''- '■■■• 
more than the magnificence of the different styles of archiif ^^.a T 
tecture wrot out, one is wellpaid. ••'-^j.::- 

But Bombay, no\¥ that travel in late years has become 
so universal; cognizant tiiat all who pass to the Far Ea^f ^" 
must necessarily call at her door has set to, to attract and 
become efficient and the outcome is that her modern build- 



170 



WHIRL AROUND THE WORLD. 



ings are unrivaled in the East, and that she well serves as 
an introductcion to the wondrous land of Ind. (Ind. you 
must know is the poetic name for India.) 

Seven trunk lines radiate thruout Hindustan from the 
Victoria Terminus, the wandering massive pile of stone 
arches, columns and pinnacled towers which is said to be 
the handsomest railway station in the world, and it cer- 
tainly is conspicuous throut Bombay as it lies, the center 
figure in the broad plaza, scintilating in the Indian sun^ 
with peoples rushing for their trains and the ox-cart plods 
slowly by this grandeur. 

All time here is reckoned by the twenty-four system, 
and their time tables do look odd, as three o'clock is printed 
as fifteen o'clock, and so on to the twenty-four at midnight. 

We were glad the big Taj Mahal Hotel was to be our 
headquarters during our stay on shore at this port; this 
great mass of stone arches is five stories high, of quad- 
rangular form which allows the freest circulation of air; 
even the many windows are glazed with tinted glass to 
reduce the sun's glare, and the long halls, or corridors are 
spacious colonades, with a great dome-way, where we wind 
round broad stone stairs or take the lift. 

The bulky arched veranda overlooking the harbour^ 
and especially with the Indian moon flooding a silvery light 
over all, was our one retreat — the management gave a dance 
for us, but we were not there, the indescribable nights held 
us in the open. 

In the rear and over the palm court is the lounge, or 
winter garden where we sat midst palms and listened to 
the band while light drinks were served by the dark waiters 
in their native dress of scarlet and white, which only en- 
hanced the oriental glamour of the surroundings. 

The kitchen to this big hostelry — for we had to eat, 
altho at times we were most too engrossed, or it seemed too 
warm to indulge — is on the roof, so there's no odor of 
cooking discernible thruout the hotel; there's a great stove 
sixteen feet long, and a forest of shining copper saucepans 
and kettles. 

The big cool halls and reading rooms were drawing 



INDIA. 



171 



thru the day when the thermometer was spewing over. 

The university in Bombay is a huge affair and its 
clock tower dominates the whole city, while at the extreme 
end of Esplanade road stands an exquisite white marble 
statue of Queen Victoria, and this was presented by one 
of her titled subjects. 

With all these beautiful things encircling Back Bay, 
some one has said "see Back Bay and live" which is not as 
poetic, tho more practical than the enthusiast who said "see 
the Bay of Naples and die." 

Having seen both, I'm possesseed with a desire to do 
it over again. 

We visited the Crawford market, where you can buy 
anything from a tiger cub to a farthing's worth of curry 
powder — a farthing, you know, is about one-half of a cent. 

The Indian dollar is the rupee, which is about thirty- 
two cents of our money; this is changed with annas as 
smaller coin as sixteen annas make one rupee. 

One afternoon was spent at the famous "Towers of 
Silence." As I mentioned before, the Mohammedans bury 
their dead; the Hindus burn theirs, but the Parsees, of 
Zoroastrian faith — believing in fire worship — exiles from 
Persia centuries ago and who are now some of India's most 
dependable merchants, deeming it pollution of the earth to 
bury the dead, have built five great round towers on top 
of Malabar Hill where they bear their dead on stretchers 
to these enclosures. 

We followed with a corpse one morning and saw them 
open the black iron door to one of these receivers, which 
is open top and has iron grating or fret work inside on 
which the dead body is laid, the door is closed, and all is 
over; the family walk slowly back down the hill, and the 
corpse is left to the vultures. 

These big black ugly, red-necked rapacious birds sit 
around on the near trees by hundreds; after a short time, 
they fly in squads over onto this open grate, where after 
thirty minute there is a fluttering and they all return on 
outstretched wings and settle about on the trees and right 



172 



WHIRL AROUND THS V/ORI.D. 




tower; of silence— parsi dead. 

— Photo by Underwood & Underwood. 



INDIA. YiS 

at our elbows; they had filled their mission and were pick- 
ing their teeth. 

They pick the flesh from the body in half an hour and 
the bones drop down thru the grating. 

These vultures are a hideous looking bird, with wattled 
red neck and pirate bill, and are tame as they are never 
molested. 

They act as scavengers. 

Another time I saw a black cloud of them settling over 
a bullock that had come in contact with an engine on the 
railway. These carrion-crows clear the wreck in a short 
time and the bones are left to bleach in the sun. 

The trips thru the native streets were interesting; we 
did not mind the unpleasant odors and uncleanliness — we 
greased our nostrils in defense and watched the multitude 
of races in their small way of trading in smallest of trifles. 

The Hindus in their multi-colored turbans of all shapes 
and sizes and cleanliness — Mohammedans with strict feat- 
ures; the flat-nosed Africans and Chinese along with the 
scant clothed coolies and porter ,who do the menial work. 

Up ccmes a couple of old bearded "snake charm- 
ers" carrying their baskets which they set down, and set 
themselve down too, right in the middle of the street, fold- 
ing up like a grasshopper with knees, in some cases, almost 
reaching above their ear, so emaciated are they. 

They spread down a cloth of various hues for you to 
throw backsheesh on, while they open the basket and take 
out the venomous and dreaded cobra of India, which begins 
to expand or inflate its throat as it weaves back and forth 
making all kinds of grimaces while the "charmer" plays a 
kind of bagpipe. 

But we were told that the poison fangs of these rep- 
tiles are extracted. 

The last day spent in this port, we went to Elephanta 
Caves. 

We chartered two big rough high built hulls with about 
sixteen native oarsmen to each, and were rowed eight miles 
across the bay to the rock caves. 



jy4 WHIRl, AROUND THE WORLD. 




STREET SHOWMEN OF SNAKES— INDIA. 

— Photo by Underwood & Underwood. 



INDIA. YJ^ 

A strong tide was in and landing was difficult to make, 
one of our ladies fell overboard and down between the two 
hulls, but was rescued after much excitement, and we 
walked up the steep circular roadway to the top of the 
mountain island to view the wonderful carvings of centuries 
ago in solid rock caves. 

Some of us were carried up in chairs tied on long poles, 
with four natives carrying the poles on their shoulders. 

We could see the yawning mouth of this big caverrn 
long before we reached it, and the stupendous columns ^nd 
gigantic gods, all hewn out of the living rock are of Titanic 
dimensions. 

The largest hall in the cave is one hundred and thirty 
feet square; sculptures emboss the walls around ,the main 
one representing the Hindu god Siva in his triple character 
of Creator, Preserver, Destroyer, as before refered to, and 
is eighteen feet high, carved in such a manner along the 
wall as to seem to start out. 

There are four of these cave temples up here, in more 
or less preserved condition, and pilgrimage is still made to 
these ghostly looking vaults by the devouts. 

From the plateau that sweeps around the top of this 
mount, we had an admirable view of Bombay harbour and 
its craft, with Butcher Island, the center of the submarine 
defences, in the fore. 

Coming back down the winding path to the water's 
edge, we scrambled into the big wallowing hulls and were 
rowed back across the bay to the "bunder," as a landing 
place is called in this Anglo-Indian country. 

Here we found some of our servants whose lips and 
mouth were all besmeared with a scarlet fluid and it was 
streaming down their chins and onto their clothes, what 
few they had on — they were indifferent as to their appear- 
ance, they were chewing the betel-nut. These nuts are 
larger than an acorn and are grown on the areca palm, 
and both men and women chew them with lime and the 
spittle is blood red, and is a most disgusting sight espelially 



176 



WHIRL AROUND THE WORLD. 



when the old women have lost their teeth save one or two 
prominent ones in the front, and she cannot close in on 
this red stream. 

I brot some of the nuts home with me, but never could 
decide to try them out. 



177 



ON THE RED SEA. 



We immediately went to our ship and adjusting our- 
selves to our floating home once more, we started across 
the Arabian Sea. 

For four days we sailed this neck of the Indian Ocean. 

One day it was as smooth as glass and resembled glid- 
ing along on ice — just a sheet of silver without a ripple. 

Only twice during our whole sea voyage have we had 
this silky sheen on the water, once before on the China 
Sea. 

Sighting land, we found we had come upon the little 
arid city of Aden a white city settled at the foot of a barren 
mountainous point of southwest Arabia near the approach 
to the Red Sea, rounding Somali Land in Africa on the left. 

A portion of this land in Africa belongs to Great 
Britain as does Aden, with a small surrounding territory. 

We hear little of Aden, yet it is a most important 
military point and guards Britain's interests thru the Red 
Sea, as does Gibralter at the entrance to the Mediteranean. 

Both of these seas are under military observation of the 
British government. 

We had been having a good time in our ship home 
across the Arabian Sea on our way to Suez, it being three 
thousand miles, necessitating nine days run ; there is some- 
■ thing going on all the time on board ship — dining and win- 
ing, dancing and music, lectures and shows, entertainments 
and games, until the time passes all too soon. 

But we were incensed with a spirit of sympathy as 
we slowly drew up around this little barren city of Aden 
lying out here in the burning sand so desolate and isolated. 

The population is forty-six thousand including the gar- 
rison. 

We had such a fine view from the steamer: we could 



178 



WHIRL AROUND THE WORLD. 



see the big rock cisterns built around to receive the rain, 
as no fresh water is available on this sandy point and when 
rainfall is lacking they resort to condensation of the salt, 
or sea water, which is the only unfailing means of supply, 
of course, for the expanse of sea swirls all round its feet. 

Their food supplies must be reached them by passing 
steamers. 

We got our field glasses and scrutinized the lonely 
fortified town; not a sprig of grass or shrub or anything 
green was to be seen, just solid, silent barrenness. 

Steaming on we passed thru the Strait of Bab-el- 
Mandeb, which means "gate of tears" from being a danger- 
ous passage; and, indeed it must be for we saw several 
ships and craft lodged on the rocks that had been wrecked 
and were abandoned, and left to the tide's draw piled high 
or lying over on their side, stript of masts and sails; it 
was really a picture of desolation for each vessel bespoke 
of disaster to some one. 

The Red Sea is as long as half way across the United 
States, and was almost an inland body were it not for this 
narrow strait of Babel-Mandeb which is only twelve miles 
wide, and now the big Suez Canal which has been dug thru 
traffic, also for circling the globe, sparing the dip down to 
the Antarctic regions. 

'Twas warm sailing thru this sea, tho interesting; the 
ship's crew kept on the lookout for sharks all the way, 
wishing to capture one, for they are said to be more abund- 
ant here than anywhere. 

On the left is Abyssinia and Nubia; on the right is 
the city of Mecca — birthplace of Mohamet, and a little far- 
ther up is Medina his burial place. 

The sea grew narrower as we neared the canal, running 
into the Gulf of Suez which is very shallow and numerous 
lighthouses stand guard all along. Here thru this shallow 
stretch, the place was pointed out where Moses conveyed 
the Israelites across the Red Sea from their bondage in 
Egypt under Pharoah, who followed them, and was drowned 
with his army. 

Just to our right is Mt. Sinai, standing just as it was 



ON THE RED SEA. 2.79 

thirty-six hundred years ago whither he led them to the 
encampment on the mount, where he received the Ten Com- 
mandments and laws from the Creator for the regulation 
of the lives of these Israelites. 

About two hundred miles farther north is Jerusalem, 
and the Dead Sea, and the River Jordan — the birthplace 
of Christianity, yet we are surrounded on all sides with 
Islamism — whole countries of Moslems; Christ's teachings 
supplanted by Mohamet, who was born five hundred years 
later and has held all his followers thruout the crusades of 
all these years. . 

It is to be regretted that the Holy Land is not in a 
Christian country, yet that Jerusalem is being perpetuated 
all round the world is attested by the many little missions 
in all the foreign lands, with sacrificing teachers interpret- 
ing the message. 

But all about us, as we enter Suez, the port at the 
beginning of the canal on the south there is a motley of 
red f ezzed Turks and white capt Moslems with trailing 
and flaring robes of all hues — dark, black, and blacker, each 
with different manners and customs. 

It took four days to sail the Red Sea, which is not red 
at all, in fact, it is a beautiful blue ; in order to bring some 
of it home with me, I tied a long string to a bottle and 
dropt it over the side of the vessel and waited for it to fill. 

What a waste of desert, as far as eye can see on either 
side. 

The yellow sands of Araby ("Araby" you must know, 
is the poetic name for Arabia), glistens to almost dimming 
the sun, and on the other side the African sand dunes 
drifted to form a barrier along the coast, and we set to 
thinking what a deplorable contrast to the profuse growth 
on the islands of Jaf a, Singapore and Ceylon where we roved 
and raved over the dense verdure. 

It has been so warm along thru this sea that everybody 
on this ship wears white from head to sole — from the cap- 
tain, officers, passengers and stewards to boot-whiteners, 
and the laundry on the hold runs day and night, and our 



]^gO WHIRL AROUND THE WORLD. 

poor chefs, or cooks, wear scant apparel in the hot kitchens, 
as they serve us three big meals, including a seven-course 
dinner, every day, and lemonade and wafers at 11 A. M. 
and tea with cakes at 4 P. M. also sandwiches at 10 P. M. 
according to German ironclad rules for punctuality. 

The bugle is blown promptly and we do the rest, also 
the resting. 

There's nothing like laying back in your deck chair 
and watch the stern of the boat lazily see-saw up and down 
on the horizon. 

As I stood by the railing one night and looked over 
the side of the vessel, watching the foaming waters go 
frothingly by (made by the cut of our ship) and the balmy 
sea breezes floating past, with now and then a lighthouse 
blinking flirtingly on the distant shore, and the strain of 
our very fine little string band drawing the "weep" out 
of the violins, mingled with the swish of the waters in 
the silent night, I thot what a beautiful privilege to be 
permitted to sail clear round the whole big wide world. 



181 



ALONG THE SUEZ CANAL. 



On drawing up to Suez, we disembarked, and our ship 
was to pass on thru the canal and take a thoro cleansing 
(altho it seemed immaculate at all times), while we dropt 
into big barges to reach the shore, where we took the train, 
outlining the canal half its length, which is about fifty- 
miles — for this waterway is a hundred miles long— ^where 
at the junction of Ismaila we turned due west and pro- 
ceeded across the desert to Cairo in Egypt. 

Somebody has said the Suez Canal is not interesting; 
he possibly did not get a glimpse of it ; for if nothing more, 
a glimpse of this beautiful turquoise strip embedded in the 
yellow sands is a picture that would put an artist to de- 
spair. 

This big ship canal was built little over fifty years ago 
by the French engineer, De Lesseps, and proved a success. 

He, ten years later, undertook the difficult problem 
of the Panama Canal, but made a failure, when after twenty 
years our States took up the expensive proposition and 
finished it. 

These two canals, the Suez, a hundred miles long, sea 
level, and our Panama, forty-six miles, lock, are the world's 
most important artificial constructions, shortening the sea 
course thousands of miles which is of valuable moment 
commercially, and more so in times of stress. 

Seventy-five miles of this blue ribbon lying here in 
the burning sands, has been dug by labor, the other twenty- 
five runs thru several lakes where the course only had to 
be deepened, for this sailing channel is twenty-six feet 
deep. 

It is cut thru a flat level barren isthmus ; not an object 
breaks the skyline save the masts of a steamer slowly and 



]^g2 WHIRL AROUND THE WORLD. 

carefully plying thru, or the wabbling long poles of the 
native craft that holds your attention over anything 
modern. 

It takes about eighteen hours for* a large steamer to 
pass thru the canal; there are nine sidings in the whole 
length to provide for ships to pass each other, and it is 
now electric lighted to aid traffic at night. 

This territory we are now in belongs to England as 
do many ports all round the world, for England owns the 
world's sea power and she must have coaling stations for 
coaling her ships on their passage. 

Four-fifths of the traffic passing thru the canal be- 
longs to England. 



4 



183 



EGYPT. 



Egypt is generally known as the land of perpetual 
sunshine; a visit would substantiate that assertion. 

It now has become quite a winter resort on that ac- 
count, or they would have you believe so, but in passing 
along, I notice "our kind" are none too numerous. 

Right here it seems, is where history began, and thru- 
out all the wars and progress, what a comparison to the 
stride of our new rapid transit country — the United States. 

It would take volumes to unveil Egypt's past. 

It seems, in taking a glance around that we are back 
in Bible times — flowing gowns, barefoot men and women, 
pious gait and such were it not for the few facilities that 
has been made necessary in order to view in quicker, than 
the native time would permit. 

The yellow glow of Sahara's burning waste only en- 
hances the age and solidity of the great ruins of former 
predomination, the citadel, the mosques (for, of course, this 
is a Mohammedan country), in fact, this whole land of 
monumental wonders, which must have taken years of 
men's work in their primitive way. 

For Egypt has seen many rulers. 

Thru all the wars and revolts, defeat and oppression 
she has played an active part since two thousand years 
before Christ. 

She has belonged to Persia, to the Greeks, to Rome, 
to the Turks, to France, to Britain. 

Mural sculpture and hieroglyphics, rock-cut tombs, 
obelisks and colossal statues each represent the peculiar 
characteristics of the one dominating. 

The buildings all covered with flat roofs of immense 
flat blocks of stone reaching from one wall or column to 
another, as wood was not used in those days. 



184 



WHIRL AROUND THE WORLD. 



Walls and columns, great gateways, portals and tow- 
ers all sculptured right on the stone representing animals 
and gods. 

If you don't go anywhere else — go to Egypt. 

Get a whiff of "Arabian nights" and orientalism, with 
all its mysteries of veiled women, hiding all save their big, 
black, sad eyes; of latticed windows swinging out over the 
Nile, disclosing signs of a harem (for the Koran, in the 
ninth chapter approves of many wives) ; the superstition 
prevalent; the prayer rugs which are the one essential of 
a Mohammedan ; the sound of the call of the muezzin from 
the balcony of the tall minarets of the great mosques, for 
prayer five times a day, when all animation is suspended 
and with bowed heads, all is silence, with head always 
turned toward Mecca in Arabia; of the extreme poverty 
and general wretched condition of the cultivators alongside 
of so much pomp, all seem so unequally divided, yet mov- 
ing like a glacier all these years. 

Tho Britain supervises this country, it is reigned over 
by the Khedive, or viceroy, who must pay tribute to the 
Sultan of Turkey. 

Now, since the cry of woman suffrage in England has 
become so thoro, there is talk here of the educated woman 
in Egypt. 

A woman sat on the throne of Egypt a number of 
years — the Greek Queen of the Ptolemy dynasty that 
reigned for three hundred years just before the Christian 
era. 

Think of the veilless woman in Sleopatra's land. 

A day when the Egyptian woman can • step out and 
take her place with other women that have an opportunity 
in the v^orld, for they look so forlorn behind these bar- 
riers, and they do not get out of life what is due them. 

During our stay in Cairo we had the Grand Contin- 
ental and the Shepherd hotels at our disposal, which are 
lofty affairs where entertainments and dances were ar- 
ranged, but defying any impression Vv^e. might incur as to 
"culture" we were out exploring, wishing to acquaint our^ 
selves with the native part. ■ . 



EGYPT. ;[g5 

One night was given up to a native refrehment hall 
where the voluptuous dance was executed by young women 
in scant oriental dress in which gyrating, and writhing and 
contortion of the body was the chief aim. 

Another was spent at the big skating rink in the park, 
and promenading thru the avenues, and out-door restau- 
rants where the assemblage is quite cosmopolitan, for 
night is when you see Cairo at its best. 

The one redeeming feature of Africa besides the dia- 
mond fields of Kimberly in the south, is the big Nile that 
runs most the whole length of Africa beginning in the 
lakes far below the equator and outlining the east side 
and running thru Cairo. 

Here it spreads into the Delta and numerous branches 
and canals distributes its waters to the Mediteranean. 

As it scarcely ever rains in this part of Africa, the 
Nile's flow is sustained by the copious rains and lakes at 
its source back in the tropics ; and during its annual over- 
flow beginning in June it carries down much rich soil scat- 
tering it out over the Delta. 

In the territory where this benefactor reaches, it en- 
ables the raising of two crops, so no wonder its coming is 
watched for and that the Nile has been, and is yet wor- 
shipt as a god. 

The Nile runs thru Cairo but is not the blue as gener- 
ally pictured, it is dark to almost muddy, but it is certainly 
this country's savior as there would be famine or complete 
abondanment without this loyal stream of fresh water 
wending its way from lakes far back, to sooth the fevered 
brow or parched lips of the various races who abide by 
its shores in this desert region.. 

But during its overflow, and with irrigation on the 
most minute and primitive plan, a territory has been opened 
up immediately surrounding (tho where this is not resorted 
to, one would never suspicion there was a river in the 
whole of Africa) , and small and numerous patches are cul- 
tivated where it is so rich that three crops of alfalfa are 
ofttimes harvested in a year. 



;j^gg WHIRL AROUND THE WORLD. 

The dark, stolid peasant or fellahs are a mixture of 
Arab, Nubian and Coptic or ancient Egyptian blood; these 
are the natives who are depended on for agriculture, and 
we saw them plowing the fields or rather patches with 
stick plows ; these are long poles for tongue, while a shorter 
pole or stick with a wooden or iron shoe on one end that 
makes the furrow, and is fastened to the pole with a rope 
or nailed and is held by the fellah as he drives his team 
of a camel and cow, or perhaps a big water buffalo and a 
stupid burro, but in no case did I see a match team of any 
kind of work animals; and it is surprising what excellent 
order and neatness these squares are laid out in, with 
dozens of the slow fellahs to each square which are not 
much larger than some city blocks, but there are no fences 
and no brush and more's the pity, no woods; what a con- 
trast — this barrenness and our Ozarks, with its densely 
^>vooded hills, its rills and tumbling crystal waters, its ooz- 
ing springs, mossy lakes and cool damp caverns; if four 
or five of these natural park counties of the Ozarks were 
suddenly set down over here in the blistering sands, I dare 
say some of these fellahs would lose all reason who have 
known nothing save the radiating heat, the sun's yellow 
glare and the hot burning sands of this open vastness. 

Some of the natives were harvesting alfalfa with hand 
grass sickles; they packed it on the camels backs in ropes 
until their sides bulged out like moving vans, and one of 
the unforgetable sights is the ever long string of sand- 
colored camels plodding along the almost invisible paths 
in all meekness with these great loads of hay, or ofttimes 
of dried cotton bracken; they make a long black winding 
streak on the sand in the distant stretch, as they travel 
always single file and are so completely covered with their 
loads as to not be visible. 

The camel is as essential to Egypt and the dessert as 
the elephant to India, or the water buffalo to the Philip- 
pines. 

Indeed, without the Nile and the camel we would be 
without Egypt. 

The camel lives to be forty years old; I asked what 



EGYPT. 187 

they usually sold for and was told $80 each; they travel 
cross-country about twenty-five miles a day, unless one 
for speed in wanted when sixty miles can be made; they 
have broad hoofed elastic feet and do not sink readily in 
the sand. 

They can go for days without water as their stomachs 
are so constructed as to store water for future use, while 
they live on merest of food as leaves, nettles and twigs, 
and even when these fail, they can draw on the humps on 
their backs which contains a storage of fat; they certainly 
are a peculiar animal, well suited for this country, a beast 
of burden and most invaluable as a means of conveyance. 

Another desert scene and one to reflect upon, and one 
almost daily seen, is the family moving across the shifting 
sands by camel route; the lone beast loaded with furniture 
and old rugs and rags, and pots and kettles and water jugs 
— in fact, he is almost obscured under the household load, 
with wife and child sitting on top of all this, the husband 
walking and leading — going out into the desert the Lord 
only knows where, possibly to join some band or nomadic 
tribe who have gone before and settled around an oasis, 
which is a well or water hole or retainer which has been 
solid enuf to hold humidity and become a fertile spot in 
the long stretches of desert. 

There are generally the Bedouins who exist thruout 
the desert, some are friendly to invaders, others hostile. 

Again there are caravan routes — long strings of camels 
are loaded with supplies and with a picturesque Arab lead- 
ing each one, they start out across the desert along the 
hot sandy path to some distant city miles away, for the 
camel can go days without water and they need only carry 
water and provisions for the attendants ; the cargo of these 
camel trains consist of, perhaps, rugs only, for this trip, 
then again it would of one certain kind of food. 

Altho a railroad outlines the Nile far up into Africa, 
it draws the line at any invasion of the desert. 

The line we came on from Suez along the big Suez 
canal of salt water to Cairo across the sandy wastes, has a 
fine fresh water canal beginning at the Nile, outlining the 



188 



WHIRL AROUND THE WORLD. 



rilroad all the way to Suez ; this line of fresh water supply- 
ing Suez as well as towns situated along the route, for rain- 
fall is meager. 

A stirring picture is the lone woman walking along the 
hard-beaten path that follows along at the side of the 
canal, with a huge water jug often two feet tall balanced 
on her head, another one on her hip, and a good-sized baby 
sitting astride her shoulder; this is the way of carrying 
water here, in the hugest of jugs of various shapes, and I 
can not recall ever seeing a man in the service. 

Mighty picturesque are the different types traveling 
along, for we are out in the agricultural district now; most 
all the natives walking silently along — here comes a woman 
on a burro, then a man with long flowing white gown that 
looks like he had just stept out of the Bible, then Nubians 
with faces like polished iron; and burros weighted with 
loads almost to floundering. 

The wheat was being sickled, and threshed by spread- 
ing on the ground in a circle while a native drove a carabao 
round and round over it tramping out the grain, while at 
another place natives or fellahs, I should say, as that is 
what the laborer is called, were pulling an iron frame with 
six heavy rollers over it, mashing the grain out. 

Irrigation is carried on in the most primitive way all 
along the river; the fellahs lift the water by a heavy pole 
see-sawing on an upright, weighted with rocks at one end 
and the bucket at the other which is pulled down in the 
water and the heft at the other end hoists it where it is 
dumped into the ditch; again an endless chain of buckets 
is turned by a camel or a cow, or both hitched together to 
a cogged beam and going round in a circle, revolves the 
chain of buckets which reach down the banks of the Nile 
where they gather up the water, turning it into the main 
ditch where it is distributed to minor ones. 

There are numerous goats and sheep laying around 
in the sparse shade that is afforded them, which is in most 
part groves or groups of the date palm, which has a huge 
body that grows strate up to fifty feet then branches out 
into long feathery leaves, from under which hang great 



EGYPT. 189 

bunches of dates- -the kind we get in the dried condition 
in the States from over here ; but they are fine when fresh. 

Cakes made of these dates pounded together and dried 
is the food of the Arabs who cross the desert. 

A liquor something like wine is made from these dates 
by fermentation, for every race or nation mut have its 
trouble annihilator; the Germans have their beer from 
hops; we have our* whiskey by fermenting our grain; Eng- 
land has her ales and stouts; Mexico dozes on pulque by 
fermenting the juice of the fleshy century plants ; Russia 
drinks vodka made from rye; Japan revels in sa-ke made 
from rice ; Italy has wines from grapes, and France's effer- 
vescent is champagne, while India absorbs arrack which is 
distilled from the juice of the coco-palm. 

Our most interesting feature at Cairo was the Pyra- 
mids, and the Sphinx. 

We drove out from Cairo across the iron bridge over 
the Nile thru a beautiful avenue, with acacia trees on either 
side; these tall overhanging acacias closely set makes this 
the only driveway in all Cairo that is not quivering with the 
heat; seven miles brings us to the great sand sea where 
these big monuments are; the wind has swirled the sand 
around so long here that they seem to be in more or less 
of a great basin. 

Three great stone pyramids and the Sphinx reared out 
here in all solitariness, have blazed in the illuminating rays 
of the sun, for lo, these four thousand years, having been 
built by the respective kings as tombs and memorials to 
themselves. 

This Sphinx is certainly a work of wonder; the pic- 
ture doesn't portray its immensity as we have come out 
upon the hill for the pose, the distance diminishing its 
size, also the atmosphere is hazy with floating hot sands, 
but this monolith is hewn from a single rock and is seven 
stories high; it is somewhat mutilated as to its features 
owing to hostile revenge during the different wars it has 
withstood. 

The fable is that the Sphinx is symbolic of wisdom 



190 



WHIRL AROUND THE WORLD. 




OUR PARTY AT THE SPHINX— CAIRO. 

— Pkoto by Underwood & Underwood. 



EGYPT. 1^1 

and is refered to as feminine; being employed to punish 
the Thebans she proposed a riddle with penalty of devour- 
ing those who could not interpret it; the enigma was: 
What animal walked on four legs in the morning, two at 
noon, and three in the evening; at last it was solved, that 
man walked on his hands and feet when young, or in the 
morning of life ; at noon of life he walked erect ; and in the 
evening or last days he supported himself upon a stick, 
result, her riddle being read the Sphinx destroyed" herself. 

The largest of the three pyramids is called the Great 
Pyramid and covers thirteen acres of ground at its base, 
all four side tapering to a point at the top, which top has 
the extreme point removed to flatten a place for resting 
after the tourist has done the stunt that no journey to 
Egypt is complete without, that of climbing to the top 
which is 451 feet. 

This huge pile is built of square boulders, varying 
slightly in size, brot from the near hills, being of hard lime- 
stone and granite, and is said to have taken a hundred 
thousand men twenty years to complete it. 

The steps or shelf formed by each layer being set back 
a little all the way to the top are more than three feet 
high, and one is more dragged up them than otherwise; 
but I must do this or be a coward; so after registering at 
the little office and, armed with three black official guides 
or dragomen, in long white gowns, demanded by the gov- 
ernment as a precaution against accidents, and to whom 
I paid a half dollar each, I was pulled from step to step 
by two of them and boosted by the third, pausing occasion- 
ally to revivify breathing, to this alarming height with only 
space between me and the ssnds below, with the wind whip- 
ping a gale from round the corner ; never daring to look 
backward I finally reached the top and dropt more dead 
than alive onto a rock bench where a cup of coffee was 
was served me, and I stood for a view of the country sur- 
rounding, but the wind almost sweeps you off your feet 
at this height while there may not be a current at the base. 

The whole panorama looked like a yellow halo over 
the green and gold field patches with the Nile like a ribbon 



2^92 WHIRL AROUND THE WORLD. 

running between ; the fertile Nile valley on one side and the 
desert stretching far away on the other. 

What a grand viw from above everything in' the coun- 
try, minarets gleaming white, the Citadel with its con- 
tinuation of white walls on the mound, little lines of camels 
barely tracable in the distance, small clumps of the date 
pams, even the Sphinx with its sixty-three feet seemed 
diminutive. 

After resting awhile I began the descent (pausing 
half way to have a picture taken) which seemed even more 
perilous as I faced the open wondering how long 'twould 
take me to reach the bottom should a foot slip. 

But these dragomans' big bare black feet must have 
vaccum cup soles for they hug the rocks like leeches. 

I asked if any person ever met with accident or death 
in making this trip, and was told that one man, an Eng- 
lishman, while slightly intoxicated insisted on descending 
alone, made a misstep and fell to the bottom. 

Time and exposure have worn the rough places on these 
narrow ledges to smoothness. ■ 

I got safely down but all during the night my rest 
was broken by crunching my toes in the mattress trying 
to gain a foothold on the very limited passage. 

It is a feat that every traveler to Egypt wishes to do 
once but never again. 

I bought a bottle of liniment the next day and had to 
be helped in and out of the carriages. . 

One evening a party of five of us chartered a small 
native craft — a dahabeah with a towering single mast and 
a long yard holding a flopping sail and went for a short 
sail up the Nile; the black crew with big teeth grinning 
had native musical instruments that looked nothing more 
than goatskin drawn over a bottomless jug, the jugs of 
different sizes, and they kept up a doleful thrum, thrum on 
these with their fingers, handling them very artistically 
and really the harmony was quite fetching; a call from 
the muezzin from the minaret sounded on the air calling 
for prayer, and all animation ceased, they closed their lips 



EGYPT. 



193 




HALF WAY UP THE BIG J'YRAMID— CAIRO. , 

— Photo by Underwood & Underwood. 



194 



WHIRL AROUND THE WORLD. 



over their elongated teeth turning their faces toward Mecca 
in silence, and we were left to drift. 

We sailed past the place where Moses was placed in 
the basket and hidden in the bulrushes where he was found 
by Pharaoh's daughter when she came down the steps to 
bathe; the bulrushes are gone, but the steps are there yet 
leading down from an old stone palace. 

This daughter of the Egyptian king adopted him as 
her son and had him educated for the priesthood which 
led to his becoming the great leader, prophet and legislator 
of the Israelites, which peoples he afterwards led out from 
the then Egyptian bondage thru the Red Sea across the 
desert to Sinai, as before mentioned, encountering conflicts 
with hostile tribes, just as the different tribes are doing 
today, these many years since. 

Natives were bathing all along the river banks. 

We visited the museum, where we saw mummies by 
the, score; they were in all stages of preservation, and 
decay too, for that matter; some with the wrappings eaten 
and torn off, others with the underside of toes dropt off, 
again with flesh al.l dried away from arms and fingers leav- 
ing them standing high up on the chest presenting a grue- 
some sight; some faces were perfectly preserved; some 
fctill had necklaces of the dried lotus blossoms, on others 
was the net of mumy beads; some were in airtight glass 
show cases but the majority were in wooden coffins, painted 
brightly in hieroglyphics, others standing around the walls. 

It was a most wierd impression of Rameses II, Kings, 
Queens, Pharaohs and numerous other personages of ages 
ago. 

All that night I could see mummies standing all round 
the room. 

Great numbers of mummies have been found in Egypt, 
others taken from tombs; altho some other countries, as 
Persia and Assyria embalmed their dead the Egyptian pre- 
servation has proven the more lasting and here in Cairo 
is where you see the results of this art at its best. 

In preserving some of these great men it was ex- 



EGYPT. ]^95 

plained, the embalmers first extracted the brain thru the 
nostrils, and the entrails thru" an incision in the side, then 
the body was salted and after a length of time the body 
was filled with aromatic substances, then the whole body 
was steeped in balsam and wrapt and wound in linen to 
twenty thicknesses; the head had muslin first glued to the 
skin, then other layers of muslin glued to the first, then 
all was coated with fine plaster, some of these have been 
unwrapt showing the almost unimpaired condition, some 
ears were dried to a mere hide, and again some of these 
preservations were pretty well wrecked. 

In traveling over the city we find the most deplorable 
fact of Cairo is the defective eyesight; I had heard of this 
before coming to Egypt but it is quickly discernable; of 
the natives on the streets who act in the capacity of drago- 
mans, boat rowers, camel drivers and half the shopkeepers 
on the streets in the native quarters are either blind in one 
eye or both, or one or both are defective; we went up to 
the tombs of the Mamelukes where the beggars are thickest 
and the awful sights of dozens of flies settled round the 
eyes of both women and children, spreading the poisonous 
filth, is only offset by their indifference to these sight de- 
stroyers. 

The Egyptian fly is the most persistent in the world, 
and we soon saw the necessity of carrying one of the hand 
fly brushes which is made of long strings of palm, others 
are of horse tail and everybody that doesn't want an inocu- 
lated fly to touch their skin carries one.. 

The natives here wear more clothing than those of 
the countries just past; some wear big baggy Turkish 
trousers with a high sash of bright colors with a zouave 
and a red fez, others wear long dark broadcloth coat or 
grow opening down the front and flowing back showing 
yellow gown underneath ; very picturesque are they, tho 
are never seen in a hurry. 

In the native part of Cairo, the bazaars are all open 
shops, the whole front is out for, of course, they are very 
small, the keeper usually sits or lays on a bench or shelf. 



;J^96 WHIRL AROUND THE WORLD. 

inside or outside the shop and everything is for sale from 
metal shawls to a crocodile. 

Along thru the center of the street called the native 
market the most minute articles are dealt in; spread out 
on an old cloth are little springs, screws, bolts,, scraps of 
wire, old bottles, broken dishes and the merest trifles be- 
side which a big dark sleek native lays all day under a 
tattered umbrella tending his wares, I stood watching him 
and his wares wondering how he, so strong, could be con- 
tent with no greater aim in life, and it was this way all 
along up the rows; another place a family was sitting on 
the floor around a low table eating a ineal, where knives 
and forks were absent, but plates were used; huge water 
jugs, the ever familiar pottery receptacle standing near; 
these vessels are of various shapes and most peculiar de- 
sign, some are carried by ropes others by the handles, and 
the different types of both carrier and vessel along the 
Nile are an interesting feature of Egyptian life; thus we 
are constantly meeting with novelty and contrast to our 
western hemisphere. 

I have seen as many as ten veiled women sitting on a 
flat cart of two wheels drawn by a single donkey, driving 
thru the street. 

And just around the corner goes a funeral procession, 
the coffin is being borne on the shoulders of four men, who 
with the mourners following behind are all walking. 

Cairo is the largest city in Africa — here are mingled 
paganism, Mohammedanism and Christianity; there are 
forty Christian churches and five hundred mosques — think 
of it; the minarets of these mosques are claimed to be the 
most beautiful in the Levant. , 

The porch and adornment of the one built by Sultan 
Hassan, where we had to shed our shoes to enter cost $3,000 
each day for three years to complete and when this was 
done we were told that he had the architects hands cut off 
so he could not construct another like it. 

The Copts are the industrious peoples here, and most 
of the business is conducted by them ; they are descendants 
of the old Egyptian race and constitute the Christian popu- 



EGYPT. 



197 




FUNERAL IN CAIRO. 

— Photo by Underwood & Underwood. 



]^9g WHIRL AROUND THE WORLD. 

lation here; they wear a black turban to distinguish them 
from the Moslems, tho the women wear veils as do the 
Mohammedan women. 

There is a great university here, where we saw the 
students all sitting about the floor with their turbans on 
learning as they weave to and fro. 

One of the pleasant characteristics we enjoyed was 
the outdoor cafes, long lines of small tables and chairs along 
the walk where we often indulged in late refreshments, for 
the nights were so inviting we forgot hotel accommoda- 
tions. 

Our time being up, we were almost forced away from 
this city to entrain for Port Said, and as we rumble along 
over the desert we reflect over this city of Mosques with 
balconied minarets reaching skyward and of glistening 
domes where you must remove your shoes upon entering, 
and of the multi-colored garb of peoples of every grade 
and position passing hither and thither in endless confu- 
sion, a moving mass of white hugely rolled turbans, red 
fezes, blue, black and white and yellow garments, all com- 
mingling with lines of camels, donkeys, drays and automo- 
biles thruout the streets, and of the Pyramids and the 
Sphinx standing like sentinels in the lone yellow desert, 
where the only thing that breaks the study of still life is 
the lowly moving caravans of camels. 

Over there, silhouetted against the sheen of the 
Nile, are the tall nude bodies of the date palm vieing with 
the tall wabbling masts of the river craft. 

And over all will ever be remembered the golden glow 
of the shimmering, radiating sands of the heated desert 
that seems to never grow cold. . 

So resistent to existence. 

This was an experience entirely dissimilar to any pre- 
ceding one. 

Our train ran along the Suez Canal once more, finish- 
ing out the north half of this long turquoise streak in the 
isthmian barrenness, reaching Port Said at night, glancing 
around this sea-encircled city, the port of the whole East, 
where is an outer and an inner harbour which must be 



EGYPT. ]^99 

entered before proceeding thru the canal, and immediately 
embarking, our steamer drew out into the Mediteranean 
Sea thru a blaze of electiricity ; electric lighted boats and 
all the different floating craft moored in the Basin, bounded 
with a handsome concrete water front and numerous light- 
houes all at winkle, our own portly sea home adding to the 
display as it was drest in its best awaiting our reception. 

We noted the statue of De Lesseps, the builder of the 
canal, the last object in view as we stood on deck watching 
"the city slowly receding. 



200 



ITALY. 



The Mediteranean, the great inland sea that washes 
the south shores of all Europe, the Riviera and the Levant, 
in its depths and expanse is a beautiful blue tho it was 
rough and for three days we threw |the /white foaming 
spray over the blue until we sighted the Sicilian shores 
and past thru the Straits of Messina; viewing Reggio on 
the Italy side, the steamer drew across to Sicily where, 
drifting slowly we scrutinized the ill-fated city of Messina 
which met with such havoc in the recent eruption. 

The sight that met us seemed to throw a pall over us ; 
we look at old ruins and take it as a matter-of-course, but 
here, spread out for miles before us on this Sicilian point 
at the foot of great hills that run back up to mountains, 
topt off by Mt. Etna, the greatest volcano in Europe which 
dominates this whole island of Sicily, was Messina, the 
chief commercial town of Sicily, with tottering houses and 
buildings all laid waste; structures two and three stories 
high, all awry and abandoned. 

The sea laps all round the front, and back of this sea- 
board is the yellow gleam of the lemon and orange groves 
rising gradually back up in the foothills; higher up the 
mountainous heights the forest sets in, then barrenness 
and lava finish to the top. 

There's no better way to view a seaport than from 
the top deck of a huge liner, and we appreciated the splen- 
did view of this spectacular ruins ; tho the unfortunate city 
is heaving ahead trying to recover its former prestige com- 
mercially, in this uncertain world, it will be some time be- 
fore these towers half broken off, leaning and tumbling 
buildings, handsome deserted villas and broken sea walls 
are replaced. 

'Twas growing dusk when, two hours later sailing, we 



. ITALY. 201 

come upon the Island of Stromboli, one of the Lipari group 
just to the north of Sicily. 

A lone cone-shaped peak rising up out of the sea three 
thousand feet high and is constantly active; at intervals 
of about fifteen minutes apart it sends up a huge column 
og blackest of smoke, then this bursts into flames , which 
shoot up like the whole top was being blown off, then it 
subsides, smothers down and lays dormant, smoldering the 
while, till the time having elapsed, all suppression overcome 
it belches forth again, lighting up the heavens around like 
a great blast, lasting only a moment, or until it has ignited 
all the exuding gas. 

All is dark at its base where it sinks into' the sea save 
for a low lighthouse. 

Our steamer lingered around giving us the benefit of 
the pyrotechnic display exploited by this lone cone out here 
in the black abyss of the sea, oozing fire and sinoke inces- 
santly, answering for a beacon at night. ' 

A volcano is one of our world's most spectacular freaks 
of nature and the most dreaded, so treacherous are they. 

Next morning found us in the Bay of Naples ; we docked 
at the wharf here so had the opportunity to use our steamer 
as hotel ; you will notice that for ports back we have had 
to anchor out in the harbour where the sea was deep, but 
now We are nearing the countries that make it a point to 
provide facilities for large liners. 

After breakfast we hurried out to take carriages to 
acquaint ourselves with whatever this city afforded. 

Hovv^ different from the barren country just left — 
all is a beautiful blue, the sky and the sea, with Naples' 
white buildings almost smothered in the green far up the 
background. 

Italy is a kingdom extending from the Alps to the sea 
and. is ruled by King Victor Em.manuel III who came to the 
throne at Rome, the seat of government the first year of 
the present century succeeding his father, King Humbert 
who vv^as assassinated by an Italian anarchist from our 
state of New Jersey. 



202 WHIRL ABOUND THE WORLD. 

The government is something like our own in that 
the king works in conjunction with two bodies, the senate, 
and chamber of deputies, tho their senate is made up of 
the royal family and some members appointed for life. 

All men are obligated to military service from the ages 
of twenty-one to thirty-nine. 

Roman Catholic is the state religion tho there are 
muny other churches; the Pope is the head of Catholicism 
and has his seat in Rome, and numerous priests are every- 
where in Naples, as one woman exprest it "the woods is 
full of 'em," and they wear long black gowns, or may wear 
cape or coat, with the queerest broad brimmed low black 
fur hat. 

Italy, in area is only as large as our western state of 
Nevada, and has an awfully congested population of thirty- 
six million, little itiore than one-third the population of our 
whole United States ; besides there is a long string of moun- 
tains that run the full length of the country, cutting the 
tillable land that much shorter; the climate in the north 
part is far at variance from the south; wheat and other 
cereals reach the height of cultivation in these northern 
provinces where irrigation is brot from the Alps, but not 
sufficient for home consumption. 

, But they exchange their fruits which is their objective 
crop, olives surpassing all other European states, to other 
nations for cereals, cottons, guns and machinery. 

And true enuf the south does abound in a most gorge- 
ous production^-every available foot is utilized, and its one 
continuation of oranges, lemons, vinyards, olives, figs, apri- 
cots and roses and poppie, for Italy is artiste and finds time 
to employ her arts, that is evident by the way her beau- 
tiful roses hang and trail over the long lines of walls and 
arches; why, in and around Naples there is something to 
attract the eye at every turn, so much doing crowded into 
such little space. 

Naples, or Napoli, as they call it over here, lays around 
the half circular bay with grim Vesuvius overlooking. 

The bay is certainly a well shielded basin ; it laves the 
rip-rap of the sea walls and washes round the old castles 



ITALY. 203 

of the middle ages ; there are five of thes6 ancient castles 
remaining, and they command a study if time is permitted. 

We took landaus for drives to survey this port; as 
overdrawn as pictures and postcards (which greet us every- 
where, and which indeed has become one of our many edu- 
cational means) seem, they do not do justice to this Italian 
city, which is most as large as St. Louis. 

The buildings are all of white or cream stone, are lofty, 
seldom less than five or six stories high in the modern part, 
and they begin at the water's edge and extend back up on 
the hills to a height of eight • hundred feet above the sea 
below; these hills are topt off with the stone castles and 
fine apartment houses or pensions (as they are refered to 
here), and big hotels with balconies with rambling vines 
climbing and festooning all about, all seemingly swinging 
out from the mountain, and from which I had a splendid 
view of the whole lighted city and bay at night, which we 
have found to be one of the ideal spots in cruising about the 
foreign seas. 

The streets are paved with lava from the eruptions of 
Vesuvius whose outbursts are world-wide, and goodness 
knows, there's enuf in sight around the base and up and 
down the sides of this undependable spasmodic volcano to 
pave the whole world. 

The streets rise in terraces and the high stone walls 
outlining them are covered with choicest of blooming and 
rambling roses, hanging languorously adown the walls; we 
drove thru miles of these rose-massed highways, between 
wails so high we could not see over, up grade and down 
grade and around curves, and the odor of the roses vied 
with that of the orange blossoms for back of these high 
walls were private residences, or villas and orange groves. 

I have decided that if we were deprived of that one 
sense, the sense of smell we would certainly lose much of 
the attractions of life, and not alone for the perfume of 
the blossoms, but also the invigorating whiff of the brine 
of the ocean. 

You can buy on any street corner here a half bushel 



204 WHIRL AROUND THE WORLD. 

of choicest roses, each one a picture of creamy loveliness 
for one lira or twenty cents of our money. 

The scarlet poppy grows wild and profusely everywhere 
and is an attraction in itself; its red blossoms in its vivid- 
ness is seen far along the railroad tracks and up the slopes. 

We took an inland trip on the railway, going thru the 
extensive vinyards, which produce raisins and the Italian 
wines; the grapevines are not pruned back like most of 
ours in California but are trained high and left to ramble 
along a series of poles netted together with wood frame 
work, which is often two decks deep, and under this canopy 
is grown another crop, finely and closely set out of garden 
stuff, small trucks and strawberries, and in some places 
irrigation is resorted to, the endless chain turned by an 
oxen as in Egypt being the type used ; wines are cheap over 
here where they are manufactured. 

The main streets in the most used part are broad but 
not of even surface and our landaus are not rubbertired and 
we are drawn over these rough streets at a careless pace, 
lopping from side to side, but anything goes in Napoli. 

Some of the streets have been macadamed, but such 
heavy traffic has worn them to a condition that the last 
two syllables better express it, consequently not many auto- 
mobiles are visible, tho the up-country roads are ideal. 

Outlining the bay shore thorof are are little refresh- 
ment gardens where one can sit and rest and gaze out 
across the bay; there are so many beautiful spots in and 
around Naples that coming once you are sure to want again. 

I saw an idea here in milk delivery; the Italian drives 
his two cows thru the streets and stops at your door and 
milks right there the quantity you want, then drives to 
the next customer and does the same thing, so there's no 
chance of dilution nor delusion. 

The rainy season in southern Italy is from January 
to April ; the sea wind blows till early afternoon ; Vesuvius 
acts as barometer, if its smoke blows toward Capri, it 
presages fair weather ; Capri is the little island south across 
the bay and has for attrartion, besides its town that sets 
upon the summit where it takes five hundred steps to reach 



ITALY. - 205 

it, the famous Blue Grotto which is a cavern in the steep 
rocky coast where the sea plays in and out, and wondrous 
colors are reflected on the rocks. 

The street Santa Lucia is the center of noisy Nea- 
politan life; the lower classes abide here and the women 
do the work ; here the children swarm and run void of any 
clothing, and all seem to live out in the narrow streets, 
here too macaroni is eaten in long drawn-out strings, and 
all kinds of petty vending goes on. 

This race of peoples which I had always looked upon 
as being dark, and indeed some of them are, seemed quite, 
white in comparison to the dark nations we have past, wear- 
ing European clothes altogether and I realize that the orien- 
tal dress of the past three months has slipt away from us, 
and I begin to bemoan its loss for the garbs of the natives 
of the different countries really seemed of the most inter- 
est after all. . ,, 

It has been a long time since we have seen the: Euro- 
pean clothes as a whole ; we have had gowns, drapes, skirts, 
pajamas and strings of beads ever since leaving San Fran- 
cisco. 

Italy's art galleries show that they are devotees of the 
chisel and the brush; the halls of sculpture are unsurpast, 
nude art seems to be the chief characteristic and the execu- 
tions in Italy's fine and famous Carrara marble reveals un- 
paralleled grandeur encompast in these lofty long halls ; this 
marble, said to be the whitest in the world is quarried from 
the hills in northern Italy which abound in this white sta- 
tuary marble, and where seven thousand men are employed 
in the preparation of this for sculpture and columns ; which 
finds its way all over the world. 

On Sunday afternoon we took the train at Circum- 
vesuvian Station and passing thru great wastes of lava that 
has been thrown out all over this area by Vesuvius and 
left great rocks piled high when the molten cooled, we out- 
lined the bay shore to the dead city of Pompeii. - 

This buried city of long ago, is now being brot to 'the 
surface and, with its head all uncapt and battered and 



206 WHIRL AROUND THE WORLD. 

mangled and crushed lies at the very feet of its monstrous 
destroyer. 

Vesuvius, the isolated conical volcano, still smoking 
and threatening, stands back of these ruins looking very 
much like the picture of the lion with its paw on the mouse. 
One can see the destruction this automatic ejector has 
wrot at different period; tho ten miles from Naples, the 
lava beds and great leaden rocks and boulders which the 
towering earthen chimney has thrown out during one of its 
spasmodic attacks are scattered all along the way ; this is 
of a dark drab or leaden color, and now it is put to use in 
vrious ways. 

This must certainly be a picture of awfulness and 
grandeur in one of its eruptions, defying everything in its 
wake in its ejection of fire, lava, steam, hot stones, ashes 
and gases; but its demonstrations do not entirely frighten 
the people away from it as all round its base, cultivation 
goes on and vinyards are climbing up its sides in the un- 
touched patches by the natives who are willing to run the 
risk of gathering their crops, or having them wiped off the 
face next year or doused with ashes. 

There is now a funicular, or wire rope railway where 
one car goes up as another comes down, running up one side 
almost to the top of the crater which carries people that 
are curious to explore, unless prest for time, as in our case. 
We reached our destination, and must have permission 
to enter the gates to Pompeii, for government excavation 
is in process all the time, and strangers and the public in 
general are forbidden. 

At the time of the holocaust this was a city of thirty 
thousand population, covering 160 acres, and had become 
a favorite resort of the wealthy Romans, and wining and 
dining and wickedness predominated when Vesuvius in all 
its mightiness undertook to blot it off the face of the earth 
in one of its violent manifestations, ejecting rocks and hot 
ashes as to completely entomb this city along with Her- 
culaneum under a depth of twenty feet of ashes in the year 
of 79. 

The present king has put aside twelve and a half thou- 



ITALY. 207 

sand dollars annually to carry on the excavation, removing 
the ashes in a careful manner so as to preserve the ruins, 
the statuary and precious relics, and indeed we descovered 
afterward that already enuf have been extricated to fill a 
museum. 

The city seems to have been walled and there are eight 
gates; we treaversed on foot thru miles of the streets for 
most of them are too narrow for vehicles, tho no vehicles 
are permitted in the enclosure now. 

The streets are narrow and paved with uneven blocks 
of lava and the sidewalks, when there are any, were made 
with larger blocks making it higher and they hadn't much 
symmetry about them and it seemed queer to be walking 
along these streets in these modem days ; the houses are a 
continuation of walls, not many with a roof now, others 
have the first floor remaining, and there are stone stair- 
ways still standing indicating two and three storied build- 
ings; all the rooms are small, and it seems the front one 
was used for shops, while the corners were used for 'wine 
rooms as the marble counters are still there; some of the 
better preserved walls show Pompeiian Red interior finish 
and its a beautiful shade against the old creamish back- 
ground; other buildings are beautifully ornamented while 
there are small courts and tiny gardens exposed; the re- 
covered treasures are placed in a long building, a museum 
that is erected on the grounds; there are whole human 
bodies, hard as stone, in writhing and twisted condition just 
as they fell when the holocaust swooped down on them; 
they are well preserved skeletons,, and are placed in glass 
showcases in the museum; 'twas a sight to walk along the 
aisles and see the different distorted forms. 

Near the entrance is a room with three of the walls 
standing and shows the nude and well preserved bodies of 
five persons as they seemed to be fleeing thru the doorway 
and being overcome had fallen in a heap; these are not 
skeletons exactly, but the flesh and skin seemed mixed 
with ashes and burned and dried to the bone; this partic- 
ular instance is left as found; they have put a plate glass 



208 



WHIRL AROUND THE WORLD 



in one whole side and the other three being the walls, keeps 
it protected. 

In another place there are the great broken columns 
of the huge Basilica, which must have been a most grand 
public hall; nothing of this is standing except the columns 
that are just half broken off and the ^reat expanse of stone 
floor. 

We roamed these lanes of destruction to the big Greek 
theater, this remains complete; it is open-air, sunken in 
the ground and surrounded all round with rows upon rows 
of stone seats, with the stage or rather arena at the bot- 
tom; here is where the gladiators fought with animals, 
as spectators sat round on these stone benches, fought as 
punishment for some misdemeanor committed — fought for 
their lives, which would make Lytton's story of ''Last Days 
of Pompeii'' more interesting after having visited this place. 

Altogether it presents a tragic scene, this whole en- 
closure)",as ,11; stands unearthed and desolate, betraying a 
story of horrible yielding up of man, whose brain must 
have whirled on realizing his doom- of suffocation or being 
roasted alive under depths of red hot ashes — no possible 
escape," these narrow lanes must have all filled at once as 
like an avalanche ; the thot is depressing. 

I. looked back down the long line of torn columns and 
facades andj broken walls with a few tufts of grass growing 
up thij'u, the lava stones, as we turned the corners, all sem- 
blance .of life and aetiyity long, since departed, and thot 
what a wierd picture it must be in the moonlight. 

We- cai1n@^''43Ut of this .morbidly gloomy atmosphere, tak- 
ing o.vir train back to Naples ; ^t noon the next day we sailed 
out of, the bay — ^the beautiful Bay of Naples, so blue— and 
skin^med along on the Mediteranean for two days and a 

,,,,-!rhi§,,sea, is a great highway of traffic; so every vessel 
that passq^, ;is scanijed by our field glasses to try to figure 
out her nationality;, and destination and cargo; on the 
bridges of each vessel there is some signal maneuvering, 
and each passes with never a break in the log. 



ITALY. 209 

Mighty majestic, is a passing liner after night with 
the lights gleaming from myriads of port holes. 

As we outlined the shores of Spain corning to the Strait 
of Gibralter, we noted that the Mediterean is about the 
busiest sea in the world; take a summary of the different 
types of peoples who abide on its coast, play on its shores, 
sail on its surf, as it washes back and forth, east and west, 
causing ebb of tide here and flow of tide there ; opening 
with Spain on the north there are the dark Spanish of 
medium height and spare, with black hair and fine dark 
eyes who do an extensive traffic thru their many ports on 
this sea ; farther on is the playground of the esthetic French 
whose many casinos furnish amusement all along the 
Mediteranean beaches, Nice and Monaco being the most 
popular watering places, where at Monaco is the famous 
gambling casino where people are millionaires and broke 
the same day, all by the fascination of the game of chance 
you have to win in spinning the wheel on which a little ivory 
ball is thrown off into one of 37 or 38 compartments and 
the particular number you have staked on either makes or 
breaks you; called roulette, meaning "little wheel," where 
everybody plays except the inhabitants of Monaco. 

Then sets in the Riviera, which is the name given to 
the seashore of northern Italy surrounding Genoa, and on 
around this boot-shaped peninsula the dark Italians load 
and unload their fruit boats; the little kingdom of Greece 
with its Aryan race and the land of much educational his- 
tory lies next basking in the Mediteranean zephyrs, even 
Turkey with its red fez and baggy trousers runs down to 
the sea; at the extreme east end are the two railway gates 
to the Holy Land; turning round, commerce is carried on 
with the mixed population of Cleopatra's land, next is Tri- 
poli with a mixture of peoples as Berbers, Bedouins and 
Moors. Tripoli belongs to Italy just on the opposite side 
of the sea. 

The French colony of Algeria lies beside of Tripoli; 
this picturesque country is clamoring for recognition as a 
winter resort, and this sea with its motley crowd of differ- 
ent races and little nations, closes with Morocco, which little 



210 WHIRL AROUND THE WORLD. ' 

sultanate furnishes the Morocco leather, and its capitol, 
the city of Fez makes and exports to all these near coun- 
tries the little cloth caps of red with black tassel which 
bears its name of Fez, which is the head dress generally- 
worn in these Moslem countries, and also in other countries 
as insignia of the Order of Shriners. 

If a person just cruised the Mediteranean, visiting the 
countries bordering, he will have seen much of the world, 
yet what a small part of the whole world it is. 



211 



GIBRALTER. 



Coming to the Strait of Gibraltar, we sight the ever 
familiar advertised "Prudential" of insurance companies 
— the Rock of Gibralter — here, again is another stronghold 
that Britain rules over. 

This huge rock rises out of the sea at the narrow 
Strait of Gibralter and from a low sandy isthmus to twelve 
hundred feet — the north, east and south sides are precipi- 
tous to almost inaccessible; Providence must have put this 
lone peak out here at the entrance to the Mediteranean as 
a natural fort to stand guard over its entrance as the other 
end of the sea was land bound until the Suez Canal was 
cut thru ; this unit of security fell into the hands of Britain 
two hundred year ago, and has been besieged by Spain many 
times but the British still "holds the fort" ; there is a 
strip of neutral ground across the isthmus most a mile 
wide separating the fortified peninsula from Spain which 
is outlined by an extremely high iron fence, with long 
pickets leaning out toward the Spanish side; there is a 
gate by which you have access to Spain but this is closely 
guarded by patrolling soldiers; we drove out across the low 
barren isthmus to view this and get a distant land-look at 
the mighty towering rock that is all honeycombed to high 
up with fortifications, where extravagant sums have been 
spent on making this an unwreckable fort ; caverns two or 
three miles long have been cut all round on the inside of 
the rock to afford wagon road for replenishing ammunition 
to the one thousand guns of all sizes which point out thru 
the port holes that have been cut thru the rock at every 
twelve yards ; this tunneling and port holes extend in series 
far up the rock, where all powder-blackened it looks like a 
rock shot full of holes; none of us were allowed to exhibit 
a camera. 



212 WHIRL ABOUND THE WORLD. 

Long rows of barracks lay at the base of the Rock; 
ammunition is carried up by a wire cable that runs from 
the top of a lower rock out over trees and wooded valley 
to the supply department below, on which big baskets 
swing. 

It did look a grim sight as the sun shone against it — 
just a bare-faced weather-beaten rock all punched full of 
holes, with guns of formidable pattern poking every way, 
and secret tunneling all inside where no one is permitted 
to enter. 

There are huge gates and walls with British soldiers 
with guns standing guard over all — there are soldiers, sol- 
diers everywhere — what must it cost England to hold this 
"Key to the Mediteranean ?" 

A British governor resides here and is chief over the 
troops which is estimated at five thousand; a fine Marconi 
system and a lighthouse are stationed on one promontory; 
the climate is the warmest in Europe and their water supply 
depends on the rainfall which is stored in a system of huge 
tanks. 

After surveying what we could in the alloted time, we 
drove thru the little city that sits all heated in its bleached 
houses and buildings of more or less Moorish and Spanish 
designs that settles all round the Rock, where there are 
more Moors than there are in Morocco just across the sti'ait, 
and where it seems the most of the business is solicitous of 
the tourist, and indeed the offerings found much patronage 
as the old Spanish shawls and lace scarfs appealed to many 
of our company ; then too, there are shops exploiting va- 
rious articles made of the Morocco leather, which is really 
goat skin, also rugs, embroideries and brass sent over from 
Morocco to find its equivalent, and then some, in American 
dollars. 



213 



ENGLAND. 



Leaving this ratlier fascinating commingling of cosmo- 
politan shop criers, for there are Berbers, Moors, Spanish, 
Arabs, Algerians, Portugese and British all assembled here, 
we embarked for England, sailing out thru the Strait of 
Gibralter which is only fifteen miles wide where a strong 
current flows constantly; all next day we defined the coast 
of Portugal, approaching very close to shore, as the sea 
is very deep along here and the one sight was watching 
the waves — the ever restless waves of this mighty Atlantic 
Ocean run along the abrupt cliffs, leaping higher and higher, 
dashing and spraying and spuming, tumbling back into the 
sea only to be caught by another swell and thrown up again ; 
'twas one of the wildest of sights — this battle of the ocean 
and the rugged coast. 

After four days sailing along the west European coast, 
we turned into the English Channel, getting up from our 
evening dinner, and last service on board the '"Cleveland," 
to view the highly colored cliffs of the "Needles," which 
are high promontories on the coast of the Isle of Wight, 
which flashes all the brilliant hues of our Arizona Canyon, 
and steamed up the Solent River to Southampton, the big 
seaport town on south England. 

Here I bade my sea home and friends a last farewell, 
and with reluctance, as I pass down the stairway on the out- 
side of the big liner at ten o'clock at night and dropt into 
a tender with a few others of the party, and who immedi- 
ately departed on the special train for London. 

As we drew away I looked back and took a last glance 
at the beautiful picture our ship made, with electric lights 
streaming from most a hundred port holes and reflecting 
far out over the water, as it proceeded on its way to Ham- 
burg, Germany, its headquarters, for this cruising ship 



214 WHIRL AROUND THE WORLD. 

heretofore had been plying between Hamburg and America 
across the Atlantic in the passenger service, when a bureau 
of about twelve young Germans chartered it from the Ham- 
burg-American Line for this cruise around the world, and 
which carried us so successfully in and out of the harbours 
of all the nations, thru the storms and the heated tropics 
and brot us safely to England's shores, where after having 
finished our sight-seeing instinct, we cross the Atlantic at 
will on the world's last word in ocean liners — the big "Im- 
perator," which has been recently launched and will make 
its maiden trip soon, as the largest ship afloat. 

As a parting tribute, I'm sure every member of this 
round-the-world party appreciates the endeavors of the 
"Cleveland" and the untiring drone of the engines, which 
seemed to never miss a cog. 

There was continued farewell wavings of hands and 
handkerchiefs and shouts of "goodby" and above all rose 
the very, very plaintive air "Alohe" which tends to dimin- 
ish one's buoyancy. 

At Southampton at midnight I received judgment on my 
luggage and a, pass and an English porter who says "ye 
know" for "you know" put my luggage on a cart and we 
walked along the dockyards a quarter mile to the big iron 
gates where I gave my pass to an officer, the gates swung 
back and I past into the city where I stayed at a hotel. 

Next morning I went down to the pier and took a 
small steamer down the Solent, crossing over to the little 
Isle of Wight, landing at Cowes to "rest" before going up 
to London; forgetting all about resting I climbed a ten 
foot ladder to the very highest seat of a big red tally-ho, 
drawn by four big dock-tailed horses (else they wouldn't 
be English horses) with a high silk-hatted coachman fore, 
and a scarlet coated footman and bugler aft, and, long with 
a few other tourists who were "doing" England we swung 
along and rumbled thru the finely hedged lanes, over 
the downs, and drew up at Whippingham Church standing 
out here all alone on the downs, where Queen Victoria used 
to worship. when she came over to the Isle of Wight to 
pass the season at Osborne House, her summer palace by 



ENGLAND. 215 

the sea; this is a fine old stone church, the royal pews on 
one side and the sarcophagus of Prince Henry of Batten- 
burg on the other. 

Prince Henry was governor of this little isle a few 
years back having married Victoria's youngest daughter, 
Beatrice, who is now living in London and who is the mother 
of Ena, present Queen of Spain. 

From here I went to Osborne House which was Vic- 
toria's favorite residence out of the many she possest, and 
found it a beautiful rambling old stone castle overlooking 
the bay where from its great windows and veranda, views 
of the regattas were fine ; none of the royal family live here 
now, one wing of it is used for convalescing soldiers, while 
the other parts still contain the royal furnishings and is 
open for public view at specified times. 

I wandered thru the lofty rooms with decorated ceil- 
ings and mural paintings to the drawing room ; this is hand- 
somely furnished with gold frame chairs and huge divan 
with finest gold-colored satin upholstery, with large gold 
satin cushions everywhere, and long yellow satin damask 
curtains draped from the high windows and doors, giving 
a golden glow, and altogether it is the most gorgeous room 
I have ever seen. 

After Victoria's Diamond Jubilee in 1897 honoring her 
sixty years of reign, at which one of the features was that 
of reviewing England's home fleet of five miles of war ships, 
four abreast; and the parade of her large colonial and for- 
eign contingent the growth and expansion of which is ac- 
credited the Victorian era, she had a special room built onto 
the castle in oriental pattern, and styled it the "Durbar 
room" in honor of all the beautiful and valued specimens 
of silver and gold, diamond studded "jubilee" presents sent 
her from her Indian subjects upon this occasion, where all 
these treasured gifts, emblems of their loyalty, are on dis- 
play in glass show cases, well guarded. 

I looked again at these tokens from the Far East with 
much more interest than I gave when these same trophies 
were on display at the St. Louis World's Fair, (having been 
loaned by the queen for exhibition on that occasion) not 



216 



WHIRL AROUND THE WORLD. 



having been to India then, and noted the extreme patience 
with which these dark men of British India work on the 
carved sandalwood and ivory boxes', hand-wrot silver and 
gold caskets and cylinders studded with priceless jewels 
each containing a message to Victoria, their empress, or an 
address pertaining to his sixty years reign. 

• I walked back to the quaint town of Cowes and stayed 
three days enjoying the calmness and coolness and the 
sensation of being alone; this town of Cowes started years 
ago as a fishing village and is now an old-fashioned Englisl 
city and fisherman's port, and a beach resort with 11,000 
population, with streets so narrow that automobiles and 
vehicles in passing ecah other must needs run the star- 
board side of each upon the sidewalk; the buildings and 
shops are low, narrow and set close together and you are 
more apt to find a restaurant in a residence than not, and 
the price is refered to as "tariff." 

The peoples are all ruddy faced and large, and I no- 
ticed an amplitude of babies, being wheeled along in their 
English perambulators. 

The gold sovereign, or pound, is $4.85 in our money; a 
shilling is a silver coin and worth 24 cents, tuppence is 4 
cents and one pence is 2 cents; when they speak of three 
pence they call it "threppence." 

Just across the Spithead from here is Portsmouth, 
Britain's royal dockyards, covering five hundred acres, and 
is said to be the largest and most magnificent in the world ; 
a wall fourteen feet high with great gateways surround 
it; here are the great storehouses and machine shops and 
slips and' docks where her largest ships of the navy are 
built; an armory is here, and late fortifications are under 
construction, and a heavy smoke hovers all round over the 
city continually; en the west side of the entrance to this 
fine harbour, a line of forts of four miles is built. 

This big naval base is just a hundred miles across the 
English Channel from France. 

In going up to London on the train, which both loco- 
motives and coaches, or compartment carriages as they are 
called, are much smaller than ours, it seemed the whole 



ENGLAND. 217 

country was a parkway, green undulating well-kept grounds 
with fancifully trimmed boxwood hedges most all the way; 
half the rural districts seem devoted to golf, polo, automo- 
bile race tracks and parks ; I learned that most of England's 
acres are owned by the nobles and are reserved for hunt- 
ing reserves. 

In fact I do not see where all these seven-and-a-quarter 
millions of peoples of London get their living, but it is said 
that every labouring man here carries a soldier on his back, 
but after going thru the slums one night with a party, 
most of the habitants looked like they were carrying a whole 
regiment. 

The dark narrow streets of this poor quarter, and there 
are many such, lined on either side with low, dingy brick 
buildings, housing — what time they were not in the streets 
— hundreds of little dirty and tattered children, some re- 
minding me of some places back in India ; here, old clothing 
was being auctioned off on tables in the middle of the streets 
at night. 

In another place eels and cockles, the poor man's sea 
food, was being served, the eels tasted delicious, while the 
bivalves — the cockles seemed to squirm as they "went to 
press" ; crabs are thrown on the hot broilers alive, for they 
are not good after having once died, but certainly are most 
delectable when fresh broiled. 

One thing in this country's favor is the advantage of 
all kinds of sea food, and the markets are full of the queer- 
est kinds of briny edibles, and fish from a finger length to 
the great codfish, that oftqn weighs as much as a man, 
were in great quantities in the fish markets ; I doted on tak- 
ing walks thru them at times to note the different species. 

As long as the ocean laps England's shores, there will 
always be sustainance, for in these depths must be a hidden 
squirming mass. 

Greater London, that is, including its suburbs, as 
Greater New York includes Brooklyn and others, has its 
vast population (7,250,000) spread over an area of four hun- 
dred and forty-three thousand acroes, truly the largest city 
in the world, with the River Thames running right thru 



218 



WHIRL AROUND THE WORLD. 



the center, about fifty miles above where it flows out into 
the Strait of Dover. 

Fifteen handsome bridges span this river in London, 
where it is eight hundred feet wide and thirteen feet deep 
until the tide comes in from the ocean and causes it to flow 
backwards, when it then raises it to seventeen feet ; I didn't 
know that, owing to its close proximity to the ocean that 
thfe tide kept the current flowing up stream half the time, 
and I couldn't get my bearings for several days; my hotel 
was on the end of Waterloo bridge at about the center of 
London, which facilitates access to all parts of the city, 
where, walking across the great wide concrete-embanked 
bridge, or one of the many others, every day to get over on 
the Strand, kept London-life-on-the-Thames ever before me, 
and indeed, it is a varied and active life, and as I was up 
and down this interesting waterway I found all kinds of 
life and traffic being exploited abreast its waters and along 
its banks, from the softly cushioned canoes and latest word 
in motor boats and the fairy-like fern-draped house boats 
for the leisure and pleasure-loving populace who idle time 
away along its bank upstream in the blue and as yet, unpol- 
lutetd flow, on down past little tea gardens and parks, to 
the more imposing structures as castles and courts, and on 
to where space becomes more valuable and concrete embank- 
ment protects the banks of the river, the great bridges 
span it with the majestic Houses of Parliament overlooking, 
down till we reach lower London where the busy docks, en- 
fiines, tall chimneys and coal barges keep the atmosphere 
veiled in soot and smoke constantly. 

Four bridges below, at London Tower bridge the con- 
gested traffic of ship commerce, and London Docks keeps a 
dense cloud hovering over this lower end of the river. 

Police boat patrol up and down, and I am told that 
many a crime is hushed by drowning, and many a scandal 
swallowed up in the darkness of its depths. 

The famous Tower bridge, just opposite the old fort — 
the Tower of London, which is now used as an arsenal, 
was closed along with many other interesting features of 
London on account of the destructive work wrecked by the 



ENGLAND. 219 

militant suffragists; this wonderful bridge has two massive 
square towers where you are taken to the top in an elevator 
and walking across, a hundred feet above, to the opposite 
tower, descending in the elevator to the other side of the 
river; this is a draw bridge where the center breaks and 
raises strate up laying back against the towers allowing 
the boats to pass thru. 

Above the Waterloo bridge is Charing Cross bridge 
leading out from the big railroad station of Charing Cross, 
crossing the river immediately on emerging from the sta- 
tion ; this station has a five-story hotel built above it. 

Then comes Westminster bridge leading to the famous 
Westminster Abbey, the renowned Gothic church where all 
the coronations of the soveregins of England take place, the 
latest one occuring in 1911 when the present King George 
V and Queen Mary were crowned. 

This distinguished church is a magnificent stone pile, 
dark to almost musty with age, the lofty roof beieng a 
hundred feet high with a length of over five hundred feet, 
with massive columns reaching to the arches; 'twas damp 
and cool inside and I went again and again to hear the ex- 
cellent music and view the sculpture and the monuments 
stationed around — monuments to their noted warriors and 
statesmen; this Abbey is also the burial place for Eng- 
land's numerous kings, and one side holds the remains of 
this country's great writers and is called the "Poet's 
Corner." 

Adjoining this pretentious edifice, and commanding a 
splendid view on the bank of the Thames, are the houses 
of parliament, where visitors can go thru on Saturdays; in 
the House of Lords are long benches upholstered in red 
leather, no desks are used nor is there room for any ; at one 
end there are two throne chairs in which the king and queen 
sit, with a smaller golden chair to one side for the oncom- 
ing king — called the Crown Prince, now the Prince of Wales 
— who is always the oldest son descending the dynasty, all 
the royal chairs having red satin cushions for their feet. 

The House of Lords, or upper house, is made up of 



220 WHIRL AROUND THE WORLD. 

Dukes, Earls, Viscounts, Barons and Bishops to the number 
of 642 members, elected for life. 

The House of Commons, or lower house, are the citi- 
zens and there are 670 of them at a salary of $2,000. 

I saw King George and Queen Mary on several outdoor 
occasions; once, the Queen and her only daughter, Princess 
Mary (altho they have five sons) were driving in Hyde 
Park, the fashionable meeting place, in an open victoria, 
with scarlet-coated attendants fore and aft; the Queen is 
not handome, but her strong features bespeak strong char- 
acteristics, and they do say that her influence is as much 
valued as the King's. 

At the brilliant rehearsal of the King's Troops of the 
Horse Guards scarlet and gold regalias of the richest and 
heaviest kind, with sabres, helmets, stirrups and bridles all 
glittering in the sun almost dazzles one; King George who 
sits his saddle well, was followed by his long line of Life 
Guards who were all mounted on the sleekest and most 
beautiful of black horses, with white wool sheep skins for 
blankets, themselves scarlet coated with shining helmets 
from which long white horse-tail tassels swayed in the 
breezes — the whole ensembele would put Kimberly in the 
dark. 

The Lord Mayor's coach drawn by four white horses, 
shows all the brilliancy and adornments of a circus wagon. 

The streets of London are called roads, they are wide 
and radiate any old way across the city! there is no such 
system as blocks or squares, and the names merge one into 
the other without notice. 

The buildings join together and run a quarter of a 
mile without a break; there are no skyscrappers here; 
wouldn't London have some sore necks if the Woolworth or 
the Singer buildings of New York were uddenly transposed 
to its city? 

A few modern hotels and apartment houses attain eight 
floors, but most are limited to three and four, and farther 
out, to only one, and all of London's buildings, fine in archi- 
tecture, appear plotched and black-besmirched from being 
long fog-soaked. 



ENGLAND. 221 

The streets most occasioned are around the civic and 
commercial center, and the most familiar of these are Pic- 
cadilly, Park Lane, Oxford Street, Bond, Regent and Pall 
Mall, Drury Lane, Leceister Sauare and Bird Cage Walk. 

London has a regular network of underground and tube 
railway, it must be the finest system in the world, anywhere 
you wish to go, you duck under the ground, take your seat 
in the car where you are exprest along thru the tube and 
rise to the surface in another part of the city; this leaves 
the streets free of the network of wire and rails that us- 
ually usurp the thorofare in the cities; only the double- 
decked motor busses and cabs are used on the streets which 
looks odd in this big city; the motor busses are open top 
on the upper deck, and you climb up the spiral stair at the 
back and take the top breezes; the seats are equipt with a 
black oilcloth apron attached to each to protect all but your 
hat from the rains that pour a little almost every dy, else 
these heavy London fogs are most equal to rain. 

One fine system of double-decked tram cars, where both 
decks are glass enclosed, runs out to the suburbs; beautiful 
sailing, this, out over the fine green country, viewing the 
park like landscapes from a glass balcony two decks up, with 
a sprinkling rain freshening everything; add thousands of 
automobiles and cabs to this over and underground service, 
yet they are very much behind as everybody is in a hurry 
to get somewhere in order to get back to start again. 

A great broad white thorofare called the Mall leads 
up to Buckingham Palace, the royal residence, where the 
King and Queen with their family reside; 'tis a rambling 
brown building of three stories with a park in the rear, and 
all is enclosed with a high iron picket fence and gates, 
where sentries with shouldered guns patrol back and forth 
continually; in front of this, is the very grandest white 
marble statue and gushing fountain, a memorial to the 
King's grandmother — Queen Victoria; this most takes up 
the whole front plaza just in front of the picket fence. 

While I was here in London during May, 1913, the King 
and Queen traveled over to Berlin to be present at the wed- 



222 



WHIRL AROUND THE WORLD. 



ding of the Kaiser's only daughter to the Duke of Bruns- 
wick, spending a week at the festivities, guests of Ger- 
many's Emperor at the Imperial Castle in Berlin ; relation, 
of course, for the Kaiser's mother is King George's aunt. 

Of all days in June, which is the London "season," 
Derby Day at Epsom Downs, where the great English 
horse races are run, is the most important. 

I went with a party by early morning train about 
twenty miles out thru beautiful green park lands, on down 
past Lord Roseberry's fine estate to Epsom Downs ; passage 
into the grounds is free for everybody, but seats are from 
three shillings up to a guinea, with every one taken and 
thousands standing. 

All of London and vicinity was there; I went over in 
the downs which is a knoll in the center of the great track 
which is a mile and a half around and is solid turf; with a 
field glass I surveyed the sea of faces; I never saw such 
a mass of peoples before ; the Lords were all in high top 
silk hats and canes, a beetle-back coat and spats; King 
George wore a grey suit with black silk hat, while Queen 
Mary appeared in navy blue over white with hat covered 
with pink roses; they were in their royal box, which was 
rather enclosed, lined with red velvet upholstery, as also are 
quite a string of boxes, or stalls (as they are called) for the 
peerage, who were all attired in mere trifles of chiffon with 
great plumes for head dress. 

But this was an unlucky year — probably because it was 
1913 — disaster, bankruptcy and tragedy ended the race. 

Disasteer — in that one horse, on nearing the plate, stum- 
bled and broke his leg and was shot in front of the grand 
stand; the jockey was injured. 

Bankruptcy — because Craganour, the favorite horse, 
after winning by a head, was counted disqualified on account 
of jostling and bunting the other horses, therefore great 
stakes lost; the people bet all over the grounds and ran 
wild. 

Tragedy — in that a woman, a suffragette, slipt under 
the rail and ran in front of the King's horse, just as they 



ENGLAND. 223 

were rounding Tottenham Corner, which is a sharp turn, 
and tried to stop it. 

The horse struck her and turned a somersault, throw- 
ing the jockey against the fence with a broken rib; the 
woman — Miss Emily Wilding Davison, leader of militant 
suffragettes was hurled yards away, was taken in an am- 
bulance to a hospital where, from brain concussion, she 
never rallied — dying a martyr to the cause. . 

The next day I went to their suffragette meeting in 
the London Pavillion; the big theater was filled with nicely 
drest and sympathetic peoples; police were thick around, 
anticipating trouble, and often get it, claiming they are so 
tried with the aggravations of the militants; there were 
fifty men, who had to present tickets to get in. 

After an hour of condoning the death of one of their 
leaders, suggestions were offered that Miss Davison should 
have a public funeral, and money was raised for that pur- 
pose ; it was remarkable the way money poured in by silent 
subscriptions which were afterward read aloud; in addition 
to this, just to show how cosmopolitan the gathering was, a 
man from the gallery called out "put down five pounds from 
Montreal," that is twenty-five dollars. 

A "Cleveland" passenger hollowed "one pound from 
California where women vote," that's five dollars. 

Another called "two guineas from Sidney, Australia," 
that's ten dollars. 

Still another "two pounds from New Hebrides," and 
so on until I'm sure they did not lack for funds for this, 
the last rites. 

The funeral was most a week after her death; I went 
to Bloomsburg Square where the procession would neces- 
sarily have to pass to the St. George's church, and it looked 
like all of London had turned out ; the street across the city, 
all the way from Victoria Station where the body arrived 
from Epsom, to the church was lined with peoples; there 
were five thousand marchers in the procession which was 
three quarters of a milee long, four abreast and interspersed 
with ten bands. 



224 WHIRL AROUND THE WORLD. 

Most all the women wore white with black on the 
sleeve, and carried beautiful Madonna lilies; it took four 
carriages to carry the handsome floral pieces that had been 
sent from all over England, for this war of man against 
women's rights has now become world-wide. 

These tributes were all tied with their colors — ^purple 
and white; the casket was covered with a purple pall, and 
green wreathes hung all round. 

There was a great force of police, but the crowd was 
orderly, and the well organized procession, by women, was 
a handsome tribute to pay to the woman who dared do such 
a rash act in order to make the government sit up and take 
notice. 

Nothing transpires over here now without the moving 
picture man winding it all up on his reel, and as a result 
I went to the Palace de Luxe a few days after, to see "The 
Derby" and "The Funeral Procession" reviewed on the 
screen. 

I sat these two splendid films out twice, trying to locate 
myself, as I was in the crowd at that point where one 
camera stood, but the picture was gone before I could look 
over the sea of faces. 

There was not a dry eye in the house aS the screen 
told the tale, and on rehearsing that part where the horse 
struck Miss Davison and threw her in the air before the 
back horse flung her against the fence, women in the audi- 
ence rose, screamed out, moaned and cried heartbrokenly, 
and continued weeping thruout the two films; others 
shouted '"bravo, bravo." 

An empty carriage followed next to the corpse in the 
procession ;it proved to be that of Mrs. Pankhurst's, the 
leader; she had been released from prison for a time on ac- 
count of ill health^ and so soon as she stept out to the wait- 
ing carriage, she was arrested and taken back to Holloway 
prison again, and the unoccupied carriage followed in the 
procession, showing the denial. 

The suffrage question is giving some uneasiness over 
here, I was talking with some of the suffragettes, and they 
said "women count as nothing here" ; I suggested that their 



ENGLAND. 



225 



country was ruled by a woman for sixty years, and that 
statues of attest are all over England and her dominions 
all the way round the world, perhaps if they should eliminate 
militancy their cause would receive more consideration. 

Some manner of destruction was going on nightly, and 
they would leave their literature scattered around as warn- 
ing; they burned race track buildings, boat houses, set fire 
to other things, send anonymous letters, picket, make riots 
daily in Hdye Park and plant bombs, then they get arrested ; 
some of them were always being hustled off to the prisons, 
where on their refusing to eat, after days of starvation, 
thinking they would be released, they were forcibly fed, 
the food conveyed thru the nostrils, about which some tales 
of cruelty were told and complaints made; but what time 
the victim is out on recuperation does not shorten her sen- 
tence, she must stay the full time if it takes a year or more. 

Their "Woman's Social and Political Union" contends 
for votes by virtue of their paying taxes and rates, also 
wish to raise their women on a higher plane, vote the un- 
derworld and the ale leech out, and indeed, some of them 
need it, for I see girls are barmaids, and that all the saloons 
are patronized by women ; I pushed back the doors of several 
of these "Oatmeal Stouts," "Sour Mash" and "Ale" bar- 
rooms and saw whole benches of women with hats all awry 
and dull eyes; one nicely drest woman stept to the curb on 
one of the main streets and discharged her eats as dis- 
gracefully as a man does. - 

Our own States are coming under the women's suf- 
frage — slowly, one at a time, eleven of the western states 
having already accorded the vote. 

London has many beautiful parks, Hdye Park and Ken- 
sington Gardens being most important, and most popular 
where you pay one penny, or two cents, for a chair to rest 
in, else there are free benches if you are not particular of 
sitting by someone. 

Great portals are at the entrance to this park, where 
is the famous Rotten Row, the beautiful driving thorofare, 
where fashion is aired daily, and which is over bowered 



226 ' WHIRL AROUND THE WORLD. 

with lofty trees; parallel to this is a sanded trotting row, 
where ladies canter by on their favorite horses, but never 
astride in the presence of Queen Mary, for she will not 
tolerate that position of equestrianism. 

Up the Thames is the grandest park yet, called Kew 
Gardens ; here are the royal botanic gardens of seventy-five 
acres and the pleasure grounds, belonging to the nation, of 
two hundred and fifty acres; these are said to contain the 
finest collection of plants in the world, and is open every 
day; at the entrance is a placard which reads "All persons 
entering this park must be decently drest. 

Here is a world of prizes, the expanse of green sward 
is dotted with huge bunchings of rhododendrens all of the 
most perfect colorings, running the gamut from white, 
pearl to pink, to red. There are Italian gardens, and the 
most beautiful rose pergola extant ; there were the different 
species of the heather, or ling; in the long halls are the 
rare flowers of every nation, here are orchids at their very 
acme ; it would take days to familiarize ones self with this 
grand show place, this free exhibition of the world's choicest 
collection of rarest flora ; all this has a lofty and dark back- 
ground of perfect shade trees, which are small groups of 
all species from different countries that can be induced to 
live in this climate. 

All England drinks tea, and all along up the grass- 
grown banks of the Thames are little tea gardens, where 
chairs and tables are scattered over the green lawns and 
little English maids administer to your fondness for the 
decoction, and the longer you tarry in this kingdom, the 
greater the fondness becomes, as this is the principal tea 
consuming country in the world, coffee receiving scarcely 
any attention, in fact, I never drank a good cup of coffee 
the whole time I was in England. 

China formerly furnished England her tea, but more 
recently her proteges, as India and Ceylon have been sup- 
plying the greater portion as these countries have forged 
ahead, with their expanse of hill sides devoted to the propa- 
gation of this beverage-producing shrub. 

About fifty miles from London on up the Thames, is 



ENGLAND. 227 

the university town of Oxford, which is England's seat of 
learning ; here are twenty-one colleges, some of them dating 
back to the thirteenth century, like its close second the 
Cambridge University just fifty miles north of London. 

Twenty miles from London, also on the Thames, is 
Hampton Court where I spent one day, going up the river 
on the steamer, passing thru two locks and around small 
grassy islands, that only enhance the charm of the clear 
water at this point; Hampton Court is a great rambling 
pile of brick with an extensive court and has the finest 
flowering garden in England, except Kew Gardens, which 
as before mentioned, is the beauty spot of the world; just 
now owing to parliament's opposition to woman suffrage, 
who retaliate with vengeance and destruction, there is great 
restriction on all public places — some being heavily policed 
while others are closed. 

But we got thru this Hampton Castle except the state 
apartments where the King and Queen reside when they 
come up here to spend a week or so on some special occa- 
sion; these towered courts are so large it takes a day to 
go thru their many long halls, which are hung with pictures 
and tapestry, each piece a treasure, of course, else it would 
not get credence on these wall, great rooms furnished in 
gold others in red, each succeeding sovereign adding to the 
gorgeousness of these centuries-old structures, all walled 
in with high iron gates with guards and guns at either 
side, the walls all overgrown with loveliest of roses — as 
you know the rose is England's flower ; here I saw a picture 
— it was one single Wistaria vine trailing along a wall that 
was fifty feet long and twenty feet high and it completely 
and gracefully covered the entire wall, for it was in full 
bloom of the lavender flowers a half a yard long profusely 
hanging — needless to say, it was well guarded. 

In this same castle ground is a famous grapevine, such 
as age and care only, let become famous, and they are few 
in the world, I can recall one other only, which is out in a 
court trailing overhead of a large outdoor refreshment 
place near the old San Gabriel Mission in California; but 
this English grapevine is trained some different, in that it 



228 WHIRL AROUND THE WORLD. 

is enclosed in a big glass hall, dome and sides, and is kept 
an even temperature and grown as hot house grapes reach- 
ing the state of perfection in roundness to the size of a 
black walnut, these being served at the king's table. 

Not appearing militant, I was permitted to enter this 
vaporous hall, where I noted the knotty trunk of this vine 
was as large as a gate post. 

This old palace, Hampton Court, was built in 1525; it 
has seen much of royalty; here is where kings and queens 
have lived succeedingly ; here King Charles II lived in the 
sixteenth century with his eight wives, here also King 
James I lived and where the Hampton Court conference 
took place in 1604, where this king authorized a new trans- 
lation of the Bible known as the King James version, and 
which is past down to us today, and which revision took 
forty-seven scholars three years to complete. 

On up this river the interesting panorama follows to 
the Windsor Castle, twenty-two miles from London; this 
old castle is the principal country seat of the royal family 
and which contains a chapel where the sovereigns are 
buried, as also is where the remains of Queen Victoria rest, 
and at which place the chief feature is the long avenue 
of large trees three miles long. 

Cricket grounds, golf courses and hunting boxes abound 
all along up here, all hedged in with low well trimmed box- 
wood hedges, and I can't recall noticing any other kind of 
fence save the hedge or stone; and the fine velvety green 
makes it all so inviting. 

But I must get back to London and quit wandering 
off up here but it is so beautiful where the river narrows^ 
and there are rapids necessitating the locks which I enjoj'^ed 
passing thru, and I came again and again for I consider 
the second, even the third view of anything much more im- 
pressive — I would go on one of the many pleasure steamers 
that plied up and down the Thames, and come back on 
the train, or go on the motorbus and return on the boat, 
always allotting time for reverie, or fanciful reflections upon 
the surroundings; the chief feature of the upper Thames, 



ENGLAND. 229 

and the most idyllic, is the boat-house life thru the summer 
months where there are dozens of these fancy little boats 
lying on the water moored to the bank by long ropes, shore 
being reached by small skiffs, or long rfancy gang- ways; 
these are all painted white, some are little fairies of one 
story of two or more rooms with fluttering filmy curtains 
and wicker furnishings, with hanging baskets of ferns and 
scarlet geraniums surrounding the whole boat, where I often 
saw the dwellers dining on the roof, as all the roofs are 
flat, or lying in hammocks under the shield of a canopy — 
others would be almost a palace two stories, fancifully 
trimmed, but always with balconies for view points, with 
flowers everywhere making a veritable dreamland, and Lon- 
don gossip has it that many of their actresses, oft' duty, 
are maintained in some of these enchanting retreats; at 
any rate, it is a very picturesque, fascinating and original 
idea, this private house-boat life on the Thames. 

One "seeing" London must not overlook Madame Tus- 
saud's exhibition of war-works in the big museum out in 
Marylebone Road; this is an educational display of cero- 
plastic art, and here you can see the latest as well as the 
historical wax models of all the chief happenings in tableaus ; 
there are four hundred exhibitions, and with the descriptive 
history accompanying each unit, it certainly opens up revel- 
ations; this little Frenchwoman, with her nimble fingers 
began the art of wax modeling when a mere girl in Paris, 
and in 1789 her success was interrupted by the French 
revolution, when the King of France, Louis XVI, and his 
Queen, Marie Antoinette, who were ruling at this time, and 
owing to their unmindful comprehension of the state of 
affairs that existed in their country coupled with their ex- 
travagance and indifference to the welfare of the populace 
of their kingly rule, for France was a kingdom at that time, 
their subjects tiring of the misrule, stormed the Bastille, 
which eventually led to the guillotining of the royal pair, 
this occurrence depriving Madame Tussaud, the wax 
modeler, of any further progress in France during this up- 
heavel, left the country and established herself in England, 
her exhibition attracting great attention as she constantly 



230 WHIRL AROUND THE WORLD. 

added the wax figure of some new celebrity or person of 
newly acquired distinction during the sixty years here in 
England, dying at the great age of ninety, where her sons 
took up her work and are carrying it on today, having es- 
tablished a music room and a refreshment hall on one floor 
where you can go and stay all day, eat, and while music 
floats thru the halls, study the features and characters of 
kings and queens, present, past and future; here is the 
triie-to-life figure of King George V, present king of Eng- 
land; of Rudyard Kipling, the author of "Plain Tales from 
the Hills" ; Joan of Arc, the heroine of the "Hundred Year's 
Wai" between England and France, where 1429 she, being 
gi.viTi an army, helped to drive the English from Orleans, 
tho city of France; of Mrs. Pankhurst; of the head only, 
of the guillotined Marie Antoinette of France, which was 
taken immediately after her execution and modelled by 
Madame Tussaud's own hands; here is the facsimile of 
Edward J. Smith, the late commander of the big steam.er 
"Titanic" which was sunk in the Atlantic on its maiden 
trip just the year before our trip around the world ; there's 
George Washington and Abraham Lincoln; all authorita- 
tive, and worth days spent in reviewing. 

A short ways off the Strand, on Bow Street, is Covent 
Garden Theater, certainly a mammoth lofty affair, where 
it being June, and the London "season," all the grand operas 
were unfolded in most sublime musical harmony every 
night, with such celebrities as Melba, the Australian, whose 
real name is not Melba at all, being Nellie Porter Mitchell, 
until she became Mrs. Armstrong, having asumed the stage 
name of Melba in compliment to her native city of Mel- 
bourne, Australia, where she was a church soloist, then 
ambitious of a larger career she came to England, where 
she met with brilliant success, and at Covent Garden, with 
the added voice of Enrico Caruso, the famous tenor, a na- 
tive of Italy, both singing Verdi's La Traviata positively 
made the great hall ring. 

Then there was "Aida," "Madame Butterfly" and "La 
Boheme" by such stars as McCormack, Emma Destinn and 
Kirby Lunn, and tickets command a price, but all are taken 



ENGLAND. 



231 



and those for the gallery are five shillings; the royal box 
is all beautifully fitted out in red velvet, where if the King 
and Queen were not present, it was occupied by other mem- 
bers of the royal family. 

There are forty theaters and music halls in London, 
most of them long standing, and have become famous. 

Along down the Strand at the end of Fleet Street, 
stands the massive heap of St. Paul's Cathedral, in the 
shape of a Latin Cross the nave is five hundred feet long; 
the interior is vast but bare; there are high campaniles on 
the west front ; herein is a library containing over ten thou- 
sand volumes, and a Whispering Gallery and the great organ 
and the wood carvings in the choir are masterpieces; in 
the crypt are the sarcophagi of Wellington, the British gen- 
eral who defeated Napoleon at Waterloo so totally on June 
18, 1815, and of Admiral Nelson who defeated the French 
and Spanish off Trafalgar, a point in southwest Spain in 
1805, where he was killed; in further honor of this service, 
by Nelson, just at the other end of the Strand is a whole 
square devoted to memmorialize him, to keep his story ever 
before the public, in the way of a fully concreted circular 
platform of street size where in the center rises a great 
column of 177 feet with a colossal statue of Nelson at the 
acme, and on either side a lion of most huge dimensions; 
this makes a kind of retreat or resting place, or a place to 
relax as you ascend the two or three steps and gaze around 
at this great monumental display massed over this whole 
square. 

Just back of this is the big National Gallery, where I 
spent one day, intending to spend more, and where you can 
linger and study for weeks the one thousand pictures hang- 
ing on its long walls which classic facade meaures close to 
five hundred feet, so you can see that much of London is 
on the mammoth order; there are pictures, and titles of 
pictures in here that you would not expect to find, and that 
I was surprised at and had to look again to make sure 
the title was not misrepresenting, and one in particular, 
where I think the guard, standing at a distance, watches the 
different expressions on the lookers as the revelations dawn 



232 WHIRL AROUND THE WORLD. 

on them; this gallery is open all days, three of which are 
free, the others are six-pence (twelve cents) admission, I 
always go on pgiy days, as I do not want to view art from 
behind a bunch of hat feathers or artificials, and the halls 
are not so full as on free days ; it is said that many of the 
most famous pictures of the world are in these halls, and 
that more than a million peoples visit this palace of art 
yearly. 

A little farther on, at the end of the Mall is Waterloo 
place and you go up a number of wide concrete steps right 
in the middle of the street, the plaza all white and splendidly 
laid out, where all the government officials and foreign am- 
bassadors dwell in sceamy-white residences, where, indeed, 
it is all so beautiful in, and around here and including Pic- 
cadilly Circus and Leicester Square. The main street in 
front of the Strand is Victoria Embankment, and outlines 
the north bank of the Thames from the Parliament Halls, 
to the Blackfriars Bridge, curving round a beautiful bend 
of the river, for over a mile, all adorned with fine buildings 
and statues and ornamental grounds, making a fine driving 
thorofare and promenade walks and is one hundred feet 
wide with trees overhanging, this, a restful spot along this 
busy way, built at a cost of ten million dollars ; in the center 
of this stands a bit of foreign art, an obelisk of old Egyptian 
times, one of Cleopatra's Needles, as called, the other one 
being in New York City, these monoliths, or single stones, 
are tall square shafts with pyramidal tops, and are of rose- 
red granite all caricatured in hieroglyphics, and are seventy 
feet high ; they formerly graced of Heliopolis along the Nile 
in Moses' time, but just before the Christian era, Cleopatra 
had them remvoed to Alexandria the Egyptian port on the 
sea, where in 1820 one of them was presented to the British 
government where it did not seem to be apprciated, being 
neglected until about 60 years afterwards, by private money 
it was erected here on the Victoria Embankment at a cost of 
fifty thousand dollars, where in the path of all work-a-day 
London, it appears as a blank to some, while to others it is 
characteristic of the whole of Egypt; the other obelisk at 
New York was presented to the United States by the Khe- 



ENGLAND. 



233 



dive, or ruler of Egypt in 1881, and is set up in Central Park 
in New York, where it is as conpsicuous as a totem pole 
from Alaska. 

The annuities paid by the British peoples to the King 
and Queen is fwo and one-third million dollars. 

One day I spent at Greenwich, or Green-ich, as it is 
called here, the suburb that sets the time for all the world, 
on the Thames about five miles from London Bridge; here 
the big observatory sits on a high promontory overlooking 
the river, and a big 24-hour clock hangs on a high wall ; this 
location is one of the four cardinal points of the world, 
and from where longitude east and west is reckoned, termi- 
nating, either side of the globe in 180 degrees longitude 
which brings the line thru the Pacific Ocean from the 
Aleutian Islands north, to New Zealand south, and at sixty 
miles to each degree, makes 21,800 miles around the world, 
paralelling the equator, all of which I will have covered, 
on this whirl around the world, tho dipping below the 
equator and as far as fifty-two degrees above, and with the 
rail and river trips inland, my milage will reach above 28,000 
on this non-stop trip. 

Surrounding the observatory is a finely wooded park 
where deers roam, and where the Londoners come to spend 
recreation amxong the lofty shade trees and along the hill- 
sides and shaded grassy walks, and I notice there are so 
many places of like skirting the big busy city of London, 
the metropolis of the world. 

We were attracted by the great wandering and magni- 
ficent hospital ,and found that the oldest part of this ramb- 
ling mass was formerly the palace of the extravagant sov- 
erign King Charles II, who during his extravagant reign over 
these British Isles, involved the nation and encountered all 
kinds of reverses, as the Dutch fleet came in and up the 
Thames as far as Chatham, burning and destroying ships, 
creating war, then the great plague of 1665 in London which 
ravage during the year carried off near seventy thousand 
persons, and this was followed by the great fire which 
spread over 886 acres, destroying thousands of houses and 



234 WHIRL AROUND THE WORLD. 

Kiost a hundred churches, and where there are many monu- 
ments, ^ref erences and allusions to this disastrous fire today. 

Why shouldn't kings and queens have all the palaces 
they want, and when and where they want them, when 
they exact such royalties from their own peoples, and one 
can well see in roving about, that the many castles and 
palaces have been erected to suit every hour of the different 
sovereign's day. 

But this great palace of the willful king was converted^ 
after his death, into a hospital for disabled seamen of the 
navy, and about fifty years ago it became the seat of the 
Royal Naval College for the education of naval officers, and 
near it stands the infirmary for the sick and disabled seamen. 

About three miles below, and on the Thames, is Wool- 
wich, (pronounced Wul-ich) where I went by tram car^ 
riding along on the top deck which is all glass enclosed 
and where you get such a good view of the country and 
river alongside as you skim along on the steel rails high 
up above it all; this is an arsenal city and stretches over 
three miles along the river, and the main feature is the 
arsenal where it is more than four mlies around, and there 
are guns and barracks, gun factories, and soldiers and parad- 
ing, nd ordnance departments, high stone walls and forbid- 
ding gates with armed soldiers patrolling and it all seems 
so busy yet so quiet and orderly that you are rather imprest 
with its mission; there's a mighty fine Garrison church, a 
mammoth affair where the troops attend services, and in 
front of this is the big parade grounds where practicing and 
drilling is featured by the many stationed here. 

^ No traveler ever sees all of London, so I am leaving by 
Charing Cross Station to entrain to Kolkestone on the Chan- 
nel, thru the County of Kent which supplies the big English 
strawberries, of which I indulged in freely, they were so 
luscious and fresh and of unheard of proportions, great 
wagons of them passing along under my hotel window 
every morning, coming up from the Kent gardens on the 
way to Covent Garden Market, where every vegetable, fruit 
and flower that England produces is on sale, and where I 
would walk thru many times to note the varieties of the 



ENGLAND. 



235 



very beautiful blossoms and the tantalizingly tempting 
fruits and vegetables. 

Folkestone is a seaport in Kent County and is the chief 
station for the Channel steamers that ply between England 
and France, its opposite being Boulogne on the coast of 
France; farther up the English coast is a passage connect- 
ing Dover with Calais on the French coast; the Straits, of 
Dover separate the Britih Isles from France and in ref ering 
to crossing, they say they are "going over on the contin- 
ent," or "over to the mainland"; from Folkestone to Bou- 
logne the Straits are only twenty-six miles wide and is 
rough and being twenty-five fathoms (or 150 feet) deep 
the tides have a forceful draw thru these narrow walls of 
high white chalk cliffs on both sides, for the pressure of 
the big Atlantic and the North Sea waters surge back and 
forth thru this passage; then it broadens out into the 
English Channel, sweeping out into the Atlantic. 

There was a time when a railroad tunnel under these 
straits was considered to connect England and Fi;anC;^ after 
the manner of the tube under the Hudson River connecting 
New York with New Jersey, but England decided not. 



236 



FRANCE. 



It took an hour and a quarter to steam across the 
choppy current, and I landed at Boulogne-sur-Mer (or Bou- 
logne-on-the-sea) , on the north head of France about fifty 
miles from Belgium ; this is a picturesque city on the Liane 
River where it empties into the Straits, and has fifty thou- 
sand peoples where one out of every twenty is English and 
the English language is almost as familiar as the French; 
this is a fashionable watering place as w-ell as a:-fortified 
seaport and many English peoples have residence here; it 
httS a fine strand where the sand makes an inviting promen- 
ade, and a great sea bathing establishment is erected to ac- 
commodate the surf plungers, but as it is always cool here 
tile season doesn't reach its height till August and Septem- 
ber ; a red flag is hoisted when the tide is favorable for bath- 
ing, as once out to sea you are hard to reclaim ; I recall once 
batln'ng in the surf of the Gulf of Mexico when the strong 
incoming tide a;lmost floored me, rolling up in high waves, 
bursting with a boom and shooting the spray sweeping 
everything before it, and I would no more than gain my 
equilibrium when another followed up in such an agitated 
manner, swirling all round me, the water grew cold, and I 
gave up this battle with the tide. 

Boulogne is divided into an upper and a lower town, 
the lower part has all the hotels and main business and 
the streets are bordered with footpaths of marble ; the upper 
part has steep streets leading up to the high walls which 
surround it and ramparts are constructed for its security; 
years ago old Napoleon, the warrior, deepened the harbour to 
this important point on the sea and fortified against pos- 
sible invasion, and camped a great army for the purpose 
of breaking in on Britain when oppartunity was presented, 



FRANCE. 



237 



but Austria became hostile at this time in 1805, and the 
army was called to other places. 

No town or city in France is without its church, or 
cathedral, and many fine ones are found in the smaller 
towns, it being the chief feature of the village, where the 
devout seem to live and die by these gray stone piles; the 
one in this town is called Notre Dame (notre diame is French 
for "Our Lady") a title of the Virgin Mary and is applied 
to many churches thruout France ; this cathedral has a great 
dome more than three hundred feet high arid is topt off 
with a huge lantern, from where a grand view of the sea 
lying below and the surrounding ramparts is gained. 

I entrained for Paris outlining the coast till I reached 
the River Somme, which runs clear thru the Department of 
Somme, emptying into the Channel along the seaboard; 
turning east at Abbeville, I outlined the banks of the Somme 
to Amien, capital of the Department of Somme and used to 
be capital of Picardy, before the Province of Picardy was 
divided into the five different departments that it now is, 
which include the five in the extreme north of France. 

This city of 90,000 inhabitants has a big manufactur- 
in trade and has communication with the sea as the Somme 
is navigable for small vessels; the chief sight here is the 
great cathedral which is claimed to be one of the hand- 
somest in the world, dominating as do most of these cathe- 
dral cities, the whole of the town ; the spire is 422 feet 
high, the central porch has a statue of Christ, and is adorned 
with 150 figures of saints; the nave is most a hundred and 
fifty feet high, with 126 columns supporting its highness, 
and the whole length of the cathedral is 469 feet and has 
the accustomed rose-window and stained glass windows; 
this Gothic, or pointed style, mass was begun in the year 
1220 and was sixty-eight years building, and has been added 
to, along the years, and in some of the towns, the cathedrals 
have never been completed altho commenced on massive 
proportions. 

Proceeding o:i to Paris, we cross the River Oise, and I 
noted women working in the fields all the way — big bunchy 
French women by the dozens, with aprons or shawls tied 



238 WHIRL AROUND THE WORLD. 

I 

over their heads ; they were doing men's work, and in some 
of the fields I did not see a man ; the fields are all small as 
they confine their agriculture to small grain, where I no- 
ticed they were harvesting the oats, tying little bunches 
by the heads close up, and setting them down where they 
looked like doll racks at a picnic in Morgan. 

On all this trip of the world have I noted farming or 
agriculture done on the large scale that we do in the United 
States; our big tractors ripping the acres open, and our 
hurry grain binders and wide swathed hay fellers are not 
taken to so kindly, and in some countries are unheard of; 
but with all our three million square miles how else could 
it be taken care of, with only our hundred million peoples, 
while France has ony 204,000 square miles for its forty mil- 
lion peoples, and her neighbor, Germany, has but few more 
square miles for her sixty-eight million peoples. 

France's greatest length is six hundred miles, and 
breadth a little less — just twice across Missouri. 

So they confine their cultivation to small stuff, and 
small patches, and the women play the active part, and in 
the markets especially the truck markets, who was doing 
the selling?— the women, for the French women in the rural 
districts are hustlers. 

This country is long on wines and one twenty-fifth of 
the whole area of France is in vinyards, and it is said they 
are unsurpast in making wines under the names of Cham- 
pagne, which is white, creaming and frothing when poured 
from the bottle, where in all meekness I indulged some just 
to note the different flavors, then there's Burgundy that 
carries all the richness of the grape, and the Bordelais wines 
which are beneficial to the system without mounting to the 
head which is the general wine and is served at all meals 
as claret, and with a little water dilution, nothing is thot 
of a teetotaler absorbing a couple of glasses. 

Beets are cultivated for the manufacture of sugar, es- 
pecially in this north part; unlike England these peasant 
farmers or agriculturists in most part own their own farms 
and supply the cities or villages nearest ; these people are 
the backbone of France. 



FRANCE. 239 

Altho France is congested and short on cultivable land, 
yet there are fine wooded forests scattered along, and I find 
that the government requires the replanting of trees that 
are cut down, this process keeping their forests always re- 
plenished, thereby furnishing wood and timber at all times, 
that necessarily would have been entirely annihilated long 
before this era these forests take up about one-seventh of 
the whole territory; the chestnut tree is given much con- 
sideration for it is resorted to as a staple food with the 
poorer classes. 

I arrived in Paris, had my luggage overhauled for which 
I had to tip the inspector, or porter, as they are termed, and 
I past out and stayed at a near French hotel the first night, 
but they having to call the "Anglaise" interpreter on every 
occaion for me, I took a carriage the next morning and went 
across the city to the Latin quarter, which is habited mostly 
by English and American students who are taking a course 
of , "finishing" over here in the different arts ; two lady 
friends from the "Cleveland" were stopping here to brush 
up on nude art, and we often took long trips together, but 
I gain more experience by depending upon my own re- 
sources. 

Not speaking French, I armed myself with a diction- 
ary, a map and an ability to make signs and faces and pro- 
ceeded the rounds of Paris, but I would say to you, if you 
do not speak French do not come to Paris, if you are pos- 
sest of the least timidity. 

They think all Americans come lined with gold (and 
I dare say same of them do) and its a constant tip, tip, 
tip, almost if they just give you a bit of information, and if 
they load your trunk on the dray they expect big money. 

The French peoples have olive or dark complexions, 
some with wondrous dark eyes and black hair, and the more 
cultured are quite handsome, when rouged; the Parisians 
are not made up of the very bunchy peasant I saw out in 
the fields as I came on the train, they are different in the 
city, being very petite, fastidious, carrying style with art; 
the men are shorter of stature than the long-legged English- 



240 WHIRL AROUND THE WORLD. 

men, and are very polite; there are all classes here in Paris 
same as any other large city. 

There are the cab drivers, who race by you, and all 
but nip your toes, and if they do injure you in any way in 
the street, you are sued — not the cab driver — for getting 
in the way. 

Yes, indeed, I had read a couple of articles of like, and 
wondered at the judgment, showing the mistake the printer 
must have made to the landlady whereupon she said: *"No, 
indeed, that was no mistake, that is the law." So I imme- 
diately commenced to take more caution in crossing the 
streets, for if I should have come as near being run over by 
a car here in Paris as I did in England, I should be killed 
or sued and perhaps both. 

There are the poor musically inclined, who come into 
your back court and make their violins weep as they cast 
their dark eyes longingly up the tiers of windows opening 
onto the court, at the mercy of the hearers tipping qualities ; 
and often there would be a rain of small coins tinkling 
adown the shaft on the concrete below, then there would be 
more violin weep, and really it was very pathetic. 

Then there are the carriage drivers who sit high up 
above you by the side of their indicators, and in driving 
along who aid their indicators in checking up kilometres 
on the nonsuspecting ( ?) American ; but its worth the over- 
charge to watch their guilefulness. 

The streets of Paris, like those of London, begin any- 
where and make a dozen bends and change names just any- 
where in the street; a street or lane is called "rue" while 
blocks and squares are never alluded to; the main boule- 
vards are broad and well kept, and there are many of these, 
for Paris is a clean city, yet there are many narrow ones, 
and some ending in cul-de-sac that recalls Jean Valjean 
in "Les Miserables" who certainly did lead a troublous life 
'mid these high stone walls, all for dishonestly taking a 
loaf of bread ; and to Victor Hugo, the author of this book, 
and many more, there is a fine boulevard named for him 
headed by a fine literary statue of him; also one to Alex- 



FRANCE. 



241 



ander Dumas across the city, a fine tribute to her literary 
genius. 

Long rows of trees outline the main boulevards and 
suggestions of art and skill in bringing out artistic attrac- 
tions in all improvements and workmanship seems to be 
the aim of all Paris, and to have become a part of their 
existence ; in fact, Paris is a most beautiful and a clean city. 

There is a plethora of tall columns, statuary, monu- 
ments and fountains, great arches and towers and bridges 
all named in honor or memory, or for some heroic deed by 
man or representing the spot where some act was committed 
during troublous times, for Paris, France, has much to 
honor, for keeping intact all these centuries and holding her 
own thruout all the different struggles with the different 
nations, besides the home embroilments of her own kings, 
which has upset the government various times, and m.ade 
it a republic for the third time which it has held since 1870 ; 
there has been much abdication, assassinations, dethroning 
and deaths to mark the progress of this government, and 
these emblems are found at intervals all over Paris, and 
again out in the rural districts; in the city they mark the 
end of a boulevard, or the circle from which a half dozen 
streets radiate or a plaza or park. 

With its close upon three million inhabitants, the capi- 
tal is one of the most interesting, and some one said, "super- 
best city in the world" ; at any rate I was bewildered as 
to where to begin to visit the different features that make 
up the rendezvous of the Parisienne, I just decided to wan- 
der at fancy's dictation, and as my room was at 6 Rue 
Leopold-Robert 6^ in a seven-story creamy apartment house 
where there is a little vestibule with a room back for the 
concierge, or doorkeeper, who must always let you in and 
out, I had easy access to two main boulevards, Raspail and 
Montparness where either the motorbus or the underground 
railway delivers you to any part of the city; if I went on 
the motorbus, on reaching their stopping stations, which 
are nothing more than a big lamp post at specified places, 
I must pull off a ticket that is numbered from the pack of 
numbers that is nailed to the post, before I can board the 



242 WHIRL AROUND THE WORLD. 

bus, then the conductor opens the door and calls out the 
numbers in rotation, for who came to the station first and 
jerked off the first number gets in first, and if the seats 
are all taken we will be left at the station (or sidewalk) 
for the next bus, as there is no standing allowed in these 
motorbusses, then I pay fare according to the place or dis- 
tance I am going, same as in London. 

The motorbus here is double decked, and a top-heavy 
looking thing with a cover over the top deck — not left to 
the elements as back in London, and with the carriages 
and cabs this is the mode of conveyance thru the streets, 
all other being confined to the tube, or underground system, 
which is certainly a net work running in all directions and 
to any part of the city under the ground; the underground 
stations are great affairs, are like large halls, their ovalling 
walls all tiling faced, make airy distributing points, for 
two and sometimes three tunnels will lead out of the same 
station, and there's a big chart posted at the entrance of 
each tube, that has the names of all the different stations 
that that particular tunnel serves, you buy your ticket, take 
your seat in one of the fine long cars and you plunge into 
the dark tube and after squirming around underground 
like a mole for a few miles, you come to the surface in an- 
other part of the city; this system is the Metropolitan, 
called the "Metro" and is a most complete method as you 
can get anywhere in Paris thru these great tunnels, and 
they are the most patronized, as these trains are always 
n-owded, so there's a big portion of Paris living under- 
ground all the time, going every way across the city. 

Of course, they are subject to holocaust, as it has 
only been a few years back since a stretch of a tunnel gave 
way and let the surface thru along with a wagon and team 
and some other street traffic; this tunnel system must 
have been an expensive enterprise, but it eliminates all the 
street car traffic off the boulevards and keeps Paris clean 
and noiseless, for the grinding of the steel car wheel against 
the rail is the bane of all nerves. 

The River Seine runs directly thru Paris making one 
grand curve, then in and out curves of the most see-saw 



FRANCE. 243 

kind clear to the sea ; were it not for this ribbon of water 
wending its way thru here I am sure much of the beauty 
of the city would have been lost; just follow this artery 
from the wall on the east limits of Paris to the wall on the 
southwest, and you will find where the most interest is 
centered, and that is why it is the attraction and the beauty 
feature of all Paris; it is crossed by near thirty bridges, 
scattered over its full length across the city, and these 
bridges, or "ponts" as they are called over here, are works 
of art, and with their equisitely lighted guards or sidings 
they present a beautiful scene after night with the soft lights 
reflecting in the waters below. The banks are walled all 
along, for this is not the large river that the Thames is, 
and on the inside down to the waters' edge are long rows 
of concrete platform for facilitating entrance to the boats 
— ^for numerous small boats ply up and down this interest- 
ing waterway constantly, pleasure boats and freight barges, 
in fact, anything that will float on the surface, sailing 
under the many bridges that connect the two parts of the 
city across the stream. 

As before mentioned the quays in most instances 
have fine shade trees bordering, and along here are little 
bazaars set continuously along with awnings for coverings, 
and various trades are carried on, one stall being devoted 
to beautiful flowers, another to books and so on along the 
banks, their rear ends backed up against the walls of the 
river while the fronts open on the streets, the venders 
standing out at the front of the little bazaars; the em- 
bankments of concrete form a fine promenade, and the boats 
are called ''flies" and "swallows." 

In the middle of the Seine and almost in the center of 
Paris is an oval shaped island called "Cite," or City ; this 
island with the river flowing around it forming a moat or 
channel of protection, as was uppermost in the germ of 
construction in olden times, was the beginning of the Great 
Paris of today; it was walled and fortified, and had two 
bridges leading out to the banks, one on either side, which 
were drawn up at night; but Paris outgrew this and be- 
coming bolder, commenced to expand under different rulers. 



244 WHIRL AROUND THE WORLD. 

building out in the rural districts, walling the city again 
until, at this date the city has expanded until it has out- 
grown five different walls, each one giving way to the other, 
where, on going thru the city, little remains of the former, 
only occasional great gates or portals or towers which 
often appear right in the middle of an avenue or boulevard, 
the immensity or the important part it has played or feat- 
ure depicted of some struggle having immortalized it into 
keeping it restored, and ever before the coming generations 
who may larn of its historical role; and right plentiful are 
the reminders scattered thruout this city, for France cer- 
tainly has a long list of rulers and of domineers. 

It has been said that "uneasy lies the head of a crown" 
and it has been proven that even in times of greatest secur- 
ity, one is in most danger, and a head of any government, 
for that matter, who settles into a confidential state of 
supremeness that he rules his subjects and that nothing 
caa undermine him, is apt to realize that "the peoples" of 
any government will tolerate only to a certain extent of 
domination, restrictions and impositions, then "the peo- 
ples" rule and the aforesaid rulers are subjected to various 
phases of fate, and no government is immune from like oc- 
currence. 

There's a picture, size eight feet by twelve feet that 
tells the fate of the reigning House of the Bourbons of 
France, where the three successive kings — Louis XIV, Louis 
XV, and Loui XVI, held sway in lordly, f ahionable extravag- 
ance during the whole century of 1700, and which was 
suddenly brot to a close on the eve of the century, when, 
after tiring of the misrule of the last of these three kings, 
Louis XVI, and his Queen, Marie Antoinette, who joined 
in "the life" of gaiety with festivals and revelry on a scale 
of unprecedented magnificence at Versailles and Petit 
Trianon unmindful of the brewing minds of the populace, 
there was an assembling of all grievances and discontents 
which found vent on the fifth of October in the year 1789, 
when after a grand banqueting of her favorites at Ver- 
sailles (the palace at their kingly disposal eleven miles in 
the suburban district of Paris) jindignation reached its 



FRANCE. 



245 



acme, terminating in an insurrection by the women of Paris 
— ten thousand of them, furiour and with various kinds of 
arms, as Prinsep, the artist depict it on the canvas with 
the title "To Versailles" and the revenge of this long en- 
durance of indifference is borne out in the women's expres- 
sions and rage as they march out of Paris on "To Ver- 
sailles" joining the mob of men, and taking the royal family 
as prisoners to Paris where they were placed under guard 
at the Tuileries, the former residence of French sovereigns 
but which is now gone, having been destroyed by fire in 
another struggle, the balance beijig removed a few years 
ago, and where now is a most beautiful floral park called 
"The Tuileries" on the north bank of the Seine, thru which 
I past every day in crossing the city. 

This insurrection eventually led to the guillotining of 
both King Louis XVI and Queen Marie Antoinette, hence 
the first Republic of France. 

After a few years of dissention and "reign of terror" 
Napoleon and Josephine swept in and made France an em- 
pire, crowning themselves emperor and empress, and in the 
pursuit of gathering territory, carried everything before 
them; Napoleon, the Corsican, and of a large family of 
boys, made one of his brothers king of Italy, another brother 
king of Holland, and for another one the kingdom of West- 
phalia was erected, and his successes becoming so brilliant, 
he, wishing to perpetuate his greatness and his companion 
Joephine being childless, he resorted to the pitiless putting 
of her aside by the divorce method, almost immediately 
wedding a daughter of Austria, they having one son, but 
he was never permitted to rule altho proclaimed king of 
Rome while yet in his cradle, being only four years old at 
the time of his warrior father's abdication in 1815 and died 
at the age of twenty-one; Napoleon's reverses set in soon 
after his second marriage and ended at Waterloo where he 
had advanced into Belgium to meet the allied armies of his 
enemies on their approach to the French front, when Well- 
ington, the general of the British army had his line to 
charge that of Napoleon's at the point of the bayonet, caus- 
ing the retreat of his imperial guards, followed by the whole 



246 WHIRL AROUND THE WORLD. 

French army at the battle of Waterloo, June, 1815; in sur- 
rendering, he was hustled aboard a British ship and con- 
veyed down south over the sea to the little island of St. 
Helena, near the west coast of South Africa, belonging to 
Great Britain and whose area of precipitous and almost in- 
accessible coasts of ten by seven miles was a most narrow 
confine for the ambitions of the Great Napoleon, which was 
his place of banishment to the end of his life five years later, 
where it is said he spent most of his time in gazing out 
over the expanse of sea, in all silence, with his face turned 
toward his beloved France and the scenes of his brilliant 
career, which proved so encouraging an outlet to his stored 
up ambitions, only to lead to his downfall. 

And the allies marched in upon Paris without opposi- 
tion. 

Waterloo is only ten miles from Brussels, and not far 
from Paris, and as I did not get to go, some of our passengers 
who did visit this famous place — the battlefield of Waterloo, 
said it is reached by a drive thru the Bois de la Cambre, a 
beautiful wooded park (for bois is French for wood or for- 
est), where you come upon the "Mont de Lion" or Mount 
of the Lion overlooking the battlefield; this pyramidal 
monument is erected on the spot where the Prince of Orange 
was wounded, and the colossal lion at its summit is made 
of the metal of the cannons that were captured from the 
French; the monument can be ascended, where you get a 
splendid view, and a good idea of the position and lay of 
the land surrounding, where this great struggle was going 
on, where they say it still bears many traces of the fearful 
scenes. 

Waterloo church stands near, where are laid many 
marble slabs in memory of the heroes who fell in the battle 
that changed France's destiny, which, a year or two prev- 
ious, was an empire extending from Denmark to Naples, 
with capitals at Amsterdam, Paris and Rome. 

But St. Helena was not Napoleon's final resting place, 
for here in Paris is a big open plaza on the banks of the 
Seine, called the Esplanade, stands the Hotel des Invalides, 
a great building whose facade is over six hundred feet long. 



FRANCE. 



247 



and was built in 1670 for a retreat for disabled soldiers 
and was arranged to accommodate five thousand, but there 
are only about five hundred inmates now, and the balance 
of the big hallways is devoted to kind of museum in which 
old artillery and armory is displayed; attached to this is 
the Church of the Invalides which has a great dome, shin- 
ing over a long distance, and was said to have been gilded 
in Napoleon's time; directly under this lofty dome, and 
down in a white marble circular enclosure where all may 
view, is the sarcophagus containing Napoleon's body — 
France having had it transfered to Paris in 1840, almost 
twenty years later, and placed in this wing of the Army 
Hall. 

Just over the entrance to the crypt I read the words 
of the emperor's last will which are inscribed in the marble 
"I desire that my ashes may repose on the banks of the 
Seine, among that French people I have so well loved," and 
looking down on the finest and probably the most prized 
tomb in Europe, you see the great red granite sarcophagus, 
which was sent from Finland, presented by Emerpor Nich- 
olas of Rusia — a beautiful highly polished red granite, of 
scroll design, with a footed base, weighing the appalling 
heft of sixty-seven tons ; this solid receptacle is elevated on 
a green onyx foundation rising from the inlaid marble floor ; 
against the white marble columns that surround, at a dis- 
tance, this imposing and solemn emblem, are twelve colossal 
sculptured figures, one against each column, representing 
the victories of Napoleon, and between these are numer- 
ous flags of the different conquests, aged to almost rags; 
could he realize the reverence shown him today, he would 
deem himself well repaid for the sacrifice, for this is a 
handsome tribute to the daring and persistent conqueror 
whose ashes repose on the banks of the Seine, and the 
marble railing is always lined with coming and going ad- 
lai: ers. 

Out on the broad Esplanade, which seems more like 
a large court, is the "Triumphal Battery" of numerous can- 
nons stationed all round the borders of the court, which 
are used in firing salutes on great occasions. 



248 WHIRL AROUND THE WORLD. 

In underneath the great arches that surround this mas- 
sive three-sided building are little curio booths with at- 
tendants vending souvenirs of the warrior, in the way of 
metal and gold brooches, charms and other articles of hat, 
cannon or gun deign or the very familiar profile of the hero 
himself, and every passerby went away with a little token 
as a remembrance, even to myself. 

After this abdication, the House of Bourbon was re- 
stored, but soon was succeeded by others, and thru ever 
ready insurrection, France became a republic for the second 
time, till Napoleon III, a nephew of the Great, converted it 
into the second empire where he, demanding assurance of 
Germany's non-aggrandizement, on being refused, declared 
war, but after a series of victories by the well organized 
and prepared Germans, Napoleon III himself, with his own 
army was compelled to surrender in 1870, and Paris was 
marched on once more, but later was vacated, by France 
turning over Alsace and a part of Lorraine together with 
an indemnity of one billion dollars to Germany. 

The third republic came into existence after this over- 
throw of the second empire in 1870, and has continued thru- 
out these fifty years, and which form of government is the 
popular one today, tho during the time there has been 
many different presidents, as it has not been all smooth 
sailing, as only one or two have completed their term of 
seven years; Raymond Poincare is the present president 
and I saw him and his wife on several outdoor occasions. 

So, you see, if you do not know a smattering of the 
history of France, you could stumble around over Paris for 
ages and not know much more of France; on approaching 
any one of our seaports while aboard the steamer, I would 
rush down in the library at the rear of the ship, where there 
was an encyclopedia and read up on the shore city and coun- 
try that we Were about to enter, but many of the volumes 
were already in service as there were others both young and 
old who had sought to review, or renew their too long neg- 
lected faculties, and as we surged along on the billows, we 
were bruhsing up on anticipations of turning the visit to 
best results. 



FRANCE. 249 

Paris is a circular city, that is, the last and great wall 
that surrounds it, is built roundly and the city is most 
crowded to its walls once more; this huge circular line of 
ramparts built to protect the city, costing many millions 
of dollars is twenty-two miles around and has ninety-four 
bastions — which are a projecting part of the wall, or as 
the wall is built in and out, forming these ninety-four 
nooks or recesses in the line; this great wall is thirty-two 
feet high while the parapet is nineteen feet wide, and has 
a sloping grass-grown embankment forty-eight feet wide 
and numerous gateways or portals lead in and out thru this 
wall. 

On my outside excursions, I had to pass thru these 
portals which rear quite above you, and I scarce could 
realize what all this was for, and I was told, on becoming 
interested, that sixteen detached forts command the ap- 
proaches to Paris, none of them farther than two miles 
from the city, while there are others that are as far as 
six miles away and there are over and underground trains 
and secret passageways leading out from the city to these 
forts, furnishing supplies; inside the wall is a wide thoro- 
fare or roadway outlining the wall clear round and cJose 
up, and parallel with this runs the railway tracks called 
the ceinture, or belt, which completely belts the city, and 
all traffic travels in a circular route over this Chemin de 
Ftr, or "road of iron." 

While there are various "Gares" or railway stations 
in Paris, no smoking, noisy railroads rumbles thru the 
streets across the city; the Gares, of which there are nine, 
are all situated around the city near the limits and each 
line comes directly in thru the wall at the nearest point 
and terminates at its own station, with the exception of 
the Gare de Orleans, the fine station on the Seine, which 
necessitates a long run, but it drops under ground on near- 
ing the center of the city. 

The many different stations scattered around the city 
makes bothersome transf ering from one station to the other 
by travelers passing thru Paris — but nobody passes thru 
Paris. 



250 WHIRL AROUND THE WORLD. 

I came in from Boulogne, stopping at the Gare du 
Nord, the station on the north of the city and on leaving, 
departed from Gare St. Lazare ; the one nearest my habitat 
was Gare Montpamasse, which particular ones I hve men- 
tioned are all fine specimens of handsome Gothic structure 
and are beautiful to behold, in fact, this is a Gothic city, 
with its pointed arches, towers and spires as trips to the 
surrounding heights or Buttes in the outer parts of the 
city where you can look down over the pinnacled and domed 
city will attest. 

I often went to the Gares just to note the different 
traveling public, and about the most entertaining feature 
was watching the French men in parting put their arms 
around, and kiss each other on the cheek, and I noticed 
this effeminate practice was the custom at all times on de- 
partures. 

The railroad coaches are much smaller than ours in 
the States; they are compartment cars accommodating 
about six passengers to each compartment, and the strictly 
first class compartments are actually upholstered in lavender 
silk tapestry, with white lace scarfs daintily attached for 
protection, and right richly costumed were the passengers 
I noted who were entraining in this "etat I" displaying 
much mauve and lavender, carrying gorgeous orchids of 
the same favored tints, possibly favor^ bestowed by friends 
as parting affection potions. 

The picturesqueness and almost the most interesting 
feature of Paris, is the great number of old palaces and 
rambling public buildings, gray, old dark, damp and musty 
with age, built at length with kingly splendor and spending, 
adding to, as each successor wished to immortalize his 
glory, for there was never anything taken away, until a 
revolution turned in. 

I loved to wander thru the long halls, with their lofty 
ceilings, where so much art is displayed in the architecture 
of the decorated beams and exposed braces that support 
the roof, often terminating in a handsome dome; and thru 
the courts and up grand stairways and around balconies 
and up old towers, where there is something "different" to 



FRANCE. 



251 



gain your attention at every turn, if nothing more than a 
piece of art stuck on a jamb, or above the door or in a 
nook , each one conveying a message or bespeaking a bit 
of history; these palaces would not command near the in- 
terest, were they modern. 

There's the Louvre, that we all see referred to in many 
instances in news current and periodicals, whose gray stone 
walls are almost black with age, the largest construction 
in Paris, its quadrangular walls rambling over a vast area^ 
and is three stories high with pointed roof sections and 
numerous towers, one long side facing the Le Louvre Quai 
on the north bank of the Seine and another opening onto 
the adjoining Jardin des Tuileries (Garden of Tuileries), 
the park with fine designs depicted in small floral patterns, 
as long rows of scarlet geraniums and low privet with foun- 
tains and statues everywhere as additional adornment. 

I first explored the court, which is certainly beautifully 
worked out in tiny gardens, the blossoms wrot to form 
mosaic designs and others, with white concrete walks and 
statues and lamps and it all keeps so damp and green here 
in the busy center of the city where unending traflic wends 
back and forth, but it is always cool in Paris. 

The court yard is called the Place du Carrousal, taking 
this name from a carousal, or revelry held here by King 
Louis XIV the first of the trio of extravagant kings refered 
to before; then Napoleon comes along a century and a half 
later and has a great stone arch, with sculptured frescoes 
and columns, in which he, himself, is often depicted in 
various characters in his ever familiar tri-cornet hat, tight 
knee breeches, shortwaist coat and high boots with his 
characteristic commanding and studious tho sullen expres- 
sion, erected to commemorate his victories of 1805. 

So you see that is the way Paris is interestingly beau- 
tified; her history dates so far back, and each victory or 
downfall is emphasized by an adorning feature, so that 
these historical embellishments are a principal part of the 
interesting sights of Paris — ^not mere idle constructions, or 
erections — each one tells its own story. 

The Louvre, a great series of buildings now, was form- 



252 WHIRL AROUND THE WORLD. 

erly a royal residence, a fortress, and has been enlarged 
upon from the seventh century, to date, by successive kings 
until it reached its prodigious extent about fifty years ago 
while Napoleon III was emperor, who pronounced the pile 
completed — but who can tell what an addition another fifty 
will bring. 

This place is now the depository of art collections, in 
painting, sculpture and antiquities, which is said to be un- 
matched in variety and extent; there are guides at two 
francs an hour to assist you in finding your way about, but 
as I knew I was going to study this for a few days, I thot 
to depend upon my own ability, resorting to a catalog of 
explanations in a limited form, which I found to be more 
to my liking, pausing as fancy dictated; I marveled at the 
great squares, large enuf to cover one side of a common 
house, of scenes and paintings wrot out in Gobelin tapestry ; 
I had often wondered about this tapestry ever since one of 
our president's daughters received a "Gobelin piece" as a 
wedding present from France and I find there is a Gobelins 
manufactory here in Paris, started ages ago by Gilles Gobe- 
lin, a celebrated dyer who first transf ered paintings to 
tapestry, by weaving }i\s ri^'hly tinted tnreads to carry out 
the shadings in the palTrtings, and it is said many cele- 
brated paintings of the old Italian, French and Spanish 
schools have been wrot out in this tapestry, the perfect 
dye retaining its colors as loyal as paint; the ablest work- 
men being procured to execute these wall panels which are 
so much prized ; I went thru the whole Apollo Gallery view- 
ing them, where some specimens were so old they were 
beginning to ravel, still holding their colors enuf that the 
scene or subject was plainly discernible. 

In another room are Napoleon's state sword and the 
crown worn by Charlemagne, when he was king of the 
Franks. 

There are two thousand paintings in the Louvre, col- 
lected, old and new, or classic and modern, from all parts 
of the world, but mostly of the Masters ; in one gallery are 
twenty-one large treasures by Rubens, the born Westphal- 
ian, but who developed his penchant for painting, and pro- 



FRANCE. 



253 



duced his two thousand pictures in Antwerp, the seaport 
of Belgium, where he spent most of his life amid the bril- 
liancy of his success, dying in 1640. 

It is said his brush was never idle, and was a most 
rapid painter and was partial to large canvasses on which 
he exploited all branches of his art — history, landscape, por- 
traits and genre, which means that kind of painting that 
depicts ordinary life and domestic scenes, tho his master- 
piece "The Descent of the Cross" hangs in the Antwerp 
Catheral. 

In patrolling along thru these satellites, for indeed, 
they seemed to illuminate the old gray walls of these long 
halls, I couldn't help but note how the artists must have 
exercised their creative ability in the manipulation of the 
brush nd colors and shadings to produce, on canvass, effects 
as, that you can almost feel the soft shimmering folds of 
the delicate pink or blue satins, and the heavy pile of the 
velvets, or the diafanous chiffons, and with a few tiny dabs, 
make a lace effect of most intricate design appear in all 
filminess, and bring into veidence every strand of hair float- 
ing in the wind, of blonds, brunettes and Titians, and the 
sea-shell pink of the body seeking retreat behind floating 
transparent chiffons, of which there are many scenes por- 
traying this semi-nude art, adorning these walls, some char- 
acters draped only a shower bath, while others weai* the 
toilette of Venus, but in all it is remarkable how life-like 
the depictions are, and you go repeatedly to study with 
admiration the graceful forms of the seashore sirens, and 
youthful outlines of harem bathers and the sprightliness of 
the wood nymphs with zephyrous clouds of drapery, and 
many affectionate portrayals of Cupid and Psyche. 

"Mona Lisa" by the Italian artist De Vinci, was not in 
the saloon, as this canvass had just recently been kidnapt. 

There are rooms devoted to marine art, where the high 
waves roll up on the shore and almost spray you, and again 
a small boat hobbling out on the surging billows of the 
ocean, will produce a sensation of sea-sickness, and you 
grasp the rail to keep from floundering ; and these paintings 



254 WHIRL AROUND THE WORLD. 

are no small affairs — half of them could not hang in a 
common residence, so large are they. 

There are two other great palaces of art gatherings 
in the city, called respectively Grand and Petit Palais, and 
at which I divided time; here are some of the modern 
paintings, productions of aspirants — for if you succeed in 
getting a picture "hung" in the Paris saloons, your future 
is assured, and as I wandered about among the rooms to 
view, it is amusing to note what a variety of subjects will 
be attacked to portray the artist's idol, or idyl, or ideal. 

There is a large tea room in the enclosed court, where 
you can go down the stairs and sit among palms and have 
light refreshments served, while scanning the artistically 
inclined, passing back and forth from one art saloon to 
another; in the Grand Palais, which is of more recent 
build, being finished in the present century, is where the 
art exhibitions take place, also equestrian shows and various 
other performances, for it is eight hundred feet long, with 
a great hall over six hundred feet long and a fourth as 
wide, surmounted with the characteristic dome 140 feet 
high and one of the finest staircases I have seen; the sand 
stone frieze, or decoration, is of many colors wrot out in 
fine design, was made at Sevres, the little "dish town" 
near St. Cloud on the Seine just out from Paris, which is 
celebrated for its Sevres China, that is imported in to our 
States, at fabulous prices and which they claim is unrivalled 
for its brilliancy of color and delicacy of execution. 

The Tuileries floral park opens onto the Place de la 
Concorde which is claimed to be one of the finest squares 
in the world; there is an oblong center or safety zone of 
cement and in the center, towers an Egyptian obelisk from 
Luxor on the Nile, seventy-six feet high, presented by the 
Pasha of Egypt to Louis Philippe during his reign in France 
upon the fall of Napoleon. 

On either side of this obelisk is a handsome fountain 
— one personifying maritime, and the other, fluvial naviga- 
tion (sea and river) ; they are large circular basins with 
bronze figures spurting water high up in the center trays 



FRANCE. 



255 



where the spraying founts make an attractive sound to the 
passing public — a mighty pretty adjunct in the middle of 
the city bordering on the Seine; all round this is a wide 
thorofare for carriages and automobiles, and this again is 
encircled with a concrete safety zone or plaza, with myriads 
of fanciful lamp posts and when all are lighted at night, 
it makes a beautiful promenade as well as picture; around 
the square are arranged eight large stone figures represent- 
ing the chief towns in France, and noticing a large black 
wreath of mourning hanging on the statue representing 
Strasburg, I found that this city in Alsace-Lorraine, former 
territory of France but now owned by Germany, and that 
it ■ being a strategical importance of defence between the 
two France having seized it from Geermany in 1681, after 
which it was strongly fortified by Vauban, the greatest of 
French military engineers, who was commissioner general 
of fortifications at that time and carried the art of fortify- 
ing France to a degree of perfection, strengthening over 
three hundred of France's citadels, but on settling the 1870 
war with Germany, Strasburg went in with the territory 
of Alsace-Lorraine ceded as indemnity from France to Ger- 
many, and that is why the black wreath of mourning hangs 
on the statue of Strasburg in Place de la Concorde today; 
on learning further of Strasburg since coming under a 
crown of imperialism, we find that this city has been 
strengthened by a new system of defence with fourteen 
detached forts surrounding the city, from about five miles 
out of the town, and a new imperial palace has been built, 
and, of course, went with it one of France's most prized 
cathedrals which has for a crowning feature a towering 
spire 466 feet in the air, with statues and great rose win- 
dow, that was not completed until four hundred years after 
it was commenced. 

Altho Concorde is French for harmony, which it prob- 
ably has enjoyed since the above struggle. King Louis XVI 
was guillotined here in 1793 and during the struggle that 
followed just before the seating of Napoleon, it is tabulated 
that three thousand peoples met their fate on the guillotine 
on this spot ; and there is a burial ground in the city called 



256 WHIRL AROUND THE WORLD. 

the "Cemetery of the Guillotined" where it is said there 
are thirteen hundred buried that were executed at the Bar- 
riere du Trone. 

This form of taking life by decapitation being adopted 
by France thru a Doctor Guillotine, where the body of the 
condemned is strapt to a table, laying with head under a 
huge leaded knife that is suspended above from two up- 
rights and the head is severed from the body, falling into 
a trough below; there are relics of these guillotines in the 
museums, as the custom is not practiced, at least to no 
extent, if at all. 

Coming several times to view this fine square. Place 
de la Concorde, or rather where I came to be with the rest 
of the peoples, generally looking on in muteness, for Ameri- 
cans were none too numerous, just to familiarize myself 
with the lay of the boulevards and connections (then when 
I had occasion to use them, I got in a hurry and took the 
"underground"), I past out into the Avenue da Champs 
Elysees, "elysian fields," which I'm sure you have all heard 
of as a world-famous promenade, being a broad open place 
with almost forests of trees lending a fine canopy, under 
which driving or promenading is ideal, and all the fashions 
in equipage and limousines are exploited. 

This leads on to the Place de L'Etoile, or "star," and 
it is a star sure enuf for there are twelve beautiful boule- 
vards radiating from this small star-shaped space, or con- 
verging into it, and in the center of this all-white star 
plaza is the mammoth Arc de Triomph, erected by Napoleon 
the Great to instruct of his life's triumphs, and cost two 
million dollars; it is an original and novel structure com- 
manding a view from most every avenue in the west of 
Paris; it is a fine creamy or sand colored granite piled 160 
high and almost as wide, and is 72 feet thick, giving you 
an idea of its massiveness ; the roof of the arch inside that 
you pass under towers above you 67 feet; on the sides are 
reliefs sculptured representing on on side Resistence and 
Peace, and on the other Departure and Triumph and has 
the names of 150 battles inscribed on the vault; from the 
platform at the extreme top, round which is a balcony, you 



I'RANCE. 



257 



have a fine view of the city by goihg up the spiraV stairway 
of 261 steps, and looking out around, all the arteries of the 
citj^ seem to lead in and meet at your feet. 

As I wandered on out west from this arch I found 
myself on the outside of the great wall and city and stroll- 
ing down thru the beautiful Avenue of Acacias in the big 
Bois de Boulogne park, containing two and a quarter thou- 
sand acres; "bois" is French for woods, so this is Woods 
of Boulogne, and it certainly is crowded with the finest 
of forest trees, with several lakes, and intersecting the 
wholo park are the grandest boulevards in the world, with 
siaewalks of concrete along the driveways. 

I walked long distances thru this park as one cannot 
enjoy the woody atmosphere in rush drives; the trees are 
all lofty being trimmed high, as no underbrush is permitted 
and you can look thru the lines of long trunks to the avenues 
just over; some of these trees have been long in the service, 
as their knotty, scaly coating would indicate, and v/alking 
thru the main lane bordered densely with acasias one can't 
help noting the striking beauty in contrast to the forestry ; 
there's seventy acres of this great pleasure tract devoted 
to artificial lakes, and the drive over the Chemin de Ceinture 
du Lac — or "road belting the lake" is the pastime of the 
fashionables of the city. 

This woody tract furnishes a most delightful ozonic 
constituent to the Parisians, and they appreciate it and 
draw all visitor's attention to this pleasure ground, wishing 
them to avail themselves of Paris' breathing place. 

As said before this park is on the outside of the great 
wall, and it runs along the line of fortifications the full 
length, and the Seine flows out under the wall from the city 
and completely encircles the park, in one of its abrupt 
curves ; in the park are the two race tracks, where I went 
to the Field of Longchamps to see the Grand Prix, pro- 
nounced "'grond-pree," and meaning the grand prize; it 
was Dimanche 29 Juin, 1913 (Sunday, June 29, 1913), and 
paying ten francs, or two dollars for a ticket, I past thru 
the gate into the parterre, or flower garden at the back of 
the grandstand, where are little tables and chairs are all 



258 WHIRL AROUND THE WORLD. 

about amid the scarlet blossoms, and where soft drinks are 
served; the big circular grandstand is of creamy stone, 
mighty pretty, architecturally, and many steps lead up to 
the glass-enclosed balconies or long promenades where, if 
it rains, which it did a little, you can view from behind the 
glass, else there are tiers of steps with chairs leading down 
to the ground from this upper glassed balcony. 

In looking out over the course there was a great sea 
of faces over in the paddock, and automobiles were almost 
as numerous, as everybody was out, for the Grand Prix 
is the year's big fashionable event in Paris, same as the 
Derby Race at London, only no racing on Sunday is per- 
mitted in England. 

Down below on the campus, between the stand and the 
track, and leisurely strutting about, were most a dozen 
manikins, young ladies posing as models, on whom the 
famous houses of fashionable wearing appearel, as'Drecolle, 
Lucille and others exploit their latest creations, for you 
must know that Paris sets the fshion for all the world, and 
these dress fanciers, vieing with each other in originating 
the most fetching gown, must needs have their productions 
paraded before the public at the important gathreings, and 
these manikins wander around at a safe distance from the 
crowds so life-size glimpse, or unobstructed view can be 
obtained of the assemblage of bits of chiffon, silk and lace, 
and comminglings of mere nothings that enwrap these mani- 
kins, who soon disappear, only to reappear a moment later 
in an entire change, including chapeau, robe, Soulier and 
gants; hideous concoctions when first launched, but after 
becoming accustomed, are "simply charming" ; in fact, there 
is much dressing at this fashionable affair and the beauti- 
fully gowned extremists are ever restless, moving about 
among the throngs with much social grace, laden with 
orchids and rare parfum. 

Soon a trumpet was sounded, heralding the arrival of 
the president's limousine, and all forgot the course for a 
minute and turned to see President Poincare and his wife 
and party alight, walking up the long flight of steps and 
thru the balcony out to the front of the grandstand, where 



FRANCE. 



259 



a circular balcony sweeps out in the center, all festooned 
with vines, baskets of flowers and bouquets, from behind 
which the — I was about to say royal family, it has actually 
been so long since I was in a republic, not one since leaving 
San Francisco; all the republics are left to the western 
hemisphere, except France and Switzerland, tho China is 
trying hard to accustom her country, but France having 
been a republic for forty-five years, it was just the "pres- 
ident's" party that viewed the races from behind the scarlet 
floral embankment, and do you know that for all-the-year- 
round continuous blossoms, that the dwarf scarlet geran- 
iums have precedence over here, and are used for adorning 
their small public gardens nad parks in abundance, the 
brilliant never failing blossoms always attracting the eye, 
and I notice they are resorted to in mo^t every instance 
for perpetual bloomery. 

Soon all eyes were turned on the race course ; this was 
the grand prize of the year and there were twenty-one en- 
trees, from different nations, including horses owned by W. 
K, Vanderbilt, Belmont and Gould, from the States; but a 
native horse "Brueler" carried off the grand prize of 300,000 
francs, or a sixty-thousand dollar race, and that is the big 
event — the Grand Prix of Paris. 

In going thru smaller parks in the city, besides the 
charm of the landscape, there are fine little surprises await- 
ing you at different turns, displaying artistic treatment in 
the setting of statues and sculpture; rounding a thicket, 
and nestling in an overgrowth of rambling English ivy is a 
fine piece of statuary huge in size, where L'Effort (strength) 
made entirely of lead is bending under the weight of a 
great boulder; another is a large white curving slab of 
marble, where, carved in relief is a pianoforte, with the 
keys finely chiseled, with Chopin, the French musical com- 
poser of last century, performing; near, is a sylph-like 
woman reclining, while an angel is depicted dropping laurels 
from above ; all this is brot out superbly, and the ever green 
ivy twining and draping over the top ; and in another nook 
overshadowed by a dark green thicket of trees and rank 
shrubs, is a new high pedestal topt with the bust of Gounod, 



260 WHIRL AROUND THE WORLD. 

the French operatic composer; surroundmg, are statues of 
music lovers in despairing attitude, while at a fountain 
smothered in ivy is Galatea, a sea-nymph and Acis, the 
shepherd of Sicily in half -reclining amorous posture, all un- 
suspecting of Polyphemus, the giant Cyclops, who is in love 
With ' Galatea, and who has secretly crept up on a huge 
boulder hanging over the listless couple, in the act of de- 
stroying Acis with a stone, and so on, thruout the city — 
bits of art peeping out in most inopportune places, and do 
you know its just perfectly lovely to be in Paris, after you 
once understand even only a smattering or review up on 
the interesting features, for its all just a continuation of 
one year drawing into another, one design developing into 
another a century later, and settling itself into a fixed 
addition. 

When you come to think that most all of France's popu- 
lation are Roman Catholics, it being the state religion up 
to a few years ago, with only about two per cent Protestants, 
you will not wonder at the great cathedrals that have be- 
come an essential to the very existence of these peoples, and 
every village no matter how small must pay its reverence 
to Our Lady, the Virgin Mary, and in the larger places, of 
course, are those structures which have reached their acme 
of perfection, tho as before mentioned, there are some of 
these worshiping edifices, commenced on a colossal scale 
that have never been completed. 

But here in Paris is the one cathedral which has be- 
come famous thruout the world for who has seen Paris, 
has seen Notre Dame. On the little island Cite (city) in 
the middle of the Seine and connected with the banks by 
nine bridges, where Paris first begun, is the great Notre 
Dame, the church of Our Lady, the Cathedral of the Arch- 
bishop of Paris, one of the finest edifices in Paris which 
was building from the year 1163 to 1235 with much recent 
restoration and improvements, where it now stands the re- 
ceiver of the devout's heart outpourings, and the admired 
of all visitors ; much of the sculptures were broken during 
the Revolution and it was used as a military depot during 
the struggle of the Communes in Paris. 



FRANCE. 



261 



There is much stress laid o nhte facades, the fronts or 
face of these cathedrals ; while this one in Paris on the Isle 
de Cite is especially noted for its rich Gothic sculpture and 
statuary over the portals, the piece over the central en- 
trance represents the "Last Judgment" ; on going thru these 
extreme portals, the public looks like pygmies; this mas- 
sive pile of stone is brown with age, and they claim it has 
settled into a mellowness that can not be reproduced only 
under the same number of centuries; it is over four hun- 
dred feet long, with a width exceeding 150 feet, whose 
canopy hangs over a hundred feet high above, with twin 
towers, one extending either side of the front to a height 
of 264 feet, with the most spindling of spires rising from 
tne rear. 

This edifice would yet seem of higher dimensions but 
there is the height of eleven steps covered up by the island 
having to be filled up to meet the surface of the growing 
city since this structure was built, and the huge walls are 
supported on the exterior by flying buttresses, which adds 
to its stolidness. 

The interior is dark, lofty and seemingly damp, lonely, 
grave and majestic in its silent grandeur; I counted seventy- 
five pillars supporting the vaulting, or arched roof, and there 
are thirty-seven chapels, the inevitable rose window which 
is a work of art commanding a study, and a striking feature 
are the beautifully stained windows which will cause you 
to wonder "how this arrangement of colors" and you visit 
its lofty interior again and again finding some feature of 
character that had escaped you before; in the choir chapels 
are the graves of many famous bishops, who had possibly 
taken their turns during all these centuries ; the church 
has a treasury, that is a collection of things historical and 
memorial, and tokens and sacrifices ; a half franc is charged 
to look at the different donations of this treasury, where 
all is explained to you by the attendant, and it is interesting 
to know the custom. 

Ascending the South Tower, which seems never end- 
ing, to get a good view of the city of spires, domes, bridges, 
chimneys, roofs and streets radiating every way with the 



262 WHIRL AROUND THE WORLD. 

little strips of green either side, from the rows of trees 
bordering, is the great bell, the singular peals of this with 
others ringin^i out over Paris almost transforms the lis- 
tener. ^'=^ '-'■' f '''■■ 

But eloquence in the description of this great cathedral 
is resorted to in "Notre Dame de Paris" in all Victor Hugo's 
affluent vocabulary whose literary genius is much remem- 
bered in this city by endowing a street with his name and 
heading it with a fine statue of himself in studious pose 
after his quitting of this world on the eve of the" last cen- 
tury, where it is said the demonstration of the peoples of 
France in the burial of this French romantic novelist in the 
Pantheon, the big church here, where as I visited, I was 
attracted by the exquisite adornment of twenty-two Corin- 
thian columns eighty-one feet high, on the date of May 
31, 1885, at the extreme age of eighty-three years, surpast 
even that , of Napoleon when his remains were brot home 
from St. Helena. 

To enable your further grasping of the importance and 
adoring reverence these great temples of worship receive 
from the lives of the French peoples, and to show the ex- 
treme care in the art bestowed upon their erection before 
they become the finished product, I am rehearsing the chap- 
ter for your convenience : 

Assuredly, the church of Our Lady at Paris is still at 
this day a majestic and sublime edifice. Yet, noble an 
aspect as it has preserved in growing old, it is difficult to 
suppress feelings of sorrow and indignation at the number- 
less degradations and mutilations which the hand of Time 
and that of man have inflicted upon the venerable monu- 
ment, regardless alike of Charlemagne, who laid the first 
stone of it, and of Philip- Augustus, who laid the last. 

Upon the face of this old queen of the French cathe- 
drals, beside each wrinkle we constantly find a scar. Tempus 
edax, homo «dacior. Which we would willingly render thus : 
Time is blind, but man is stupid. 

If we had leisure to examine one by one, with the reader, 
the traces of destruction imprinted on this ancient church, 
the work of Time would be found to form the lesser portion ; 



FRANCE. 



263 



the worst destruction has been perpetrated by men, espe- 
cially by men of art. We are under the necessity of using 
the expression men of art, seeing that there have been in- 
dividuals in France who have assumed the character of 
architects in the two last centuries. 

And first of all — to cite only a few leading examples — 
there are, assuredly, few finer architectural pages than that 
front of the Parisian cathedral, in which, successively and 
at once, the three receding pointed gateways ; the decorated 
and indented band of the twenty-eight royal niches; the 
vast central circular window, flanked by the two lateral 
ones, like the priest by the deacon and subdeacon ; the lofty 
and slender gallery of tri-foliated arcades, supporting a 
heavy platform upon its light and delicate columns ; and the 
two dark and massive towers, with their eaves of slate — har- 
monious parts of one magnificent whole, rising one above 
another in five gigantic stories — unfold themselves to the 
eye, in combination unconfused, with their innumerable de- 
tails of statuary, sculpture, and carving in powerful alliance 
with the tranquil grandeur of the whole — a vast symphony 
in stone, if we may so express it — the colossal work of a 
man and of a nation — combining unity with complexity, 
like the Iliads and the Romanceros, to which it is a sister 
production — the prodigious result of a draught upon the 
whole resources of an era — in which, upon every stone, is 
seen displayed in a hundred varieties the fancy of the 
workman disciplined by the genius of the artist — a sort of 
human Creation ; in short, mighty and prolific as the Divine 
Creation, of which it seems to have caught the double char- 
acter — variety and eternity. 

And what is here said of the front must be, said of the 
whole church, and what we say of the cathedral church of 
Paris, must be said of all the churches of Christendom in 
the Middle Ages. Everything is in its place in that art — 
self-created, logical, and well-proportioned. By measuring 
the toe we estimate the giant. 

But to return to the front of Notre-Dame as it still ap- 
pears to us when we go to gaze in pious admiration upon 
the solemn and might cathedral, looking terrible, as its 



2g4 WHIRL AROUND THE WORLD. 

chroniclers express it — quae mole sua terrorem incutit 
spectantibus. 

Three things of importance are now wanting to this 
front : first, the flight of eleven steps by which it formerly- 
rose above the level of the ground; then the lower range 
of statues, which occupied the niches of the three portals ; 
and, lastly, the upper series, of the twenty-eight more an- 
cient kings of France, which filled the gallery on the first 
story, beginning with Childebert and ending with Philip- 
Augustus, each holding in his hand the imperial ball. 

As for the flight of steps, it is Time that has made it 
disappear, by raising, with slow but resistless progress, the 
level of the ground in the city. But while thus swallowing 
up, one after another, in this mounting tide of the pavement 
of Paris, the eleven steps which added to the majestic 
elevation of the structure, Time has given to the church, 
perhaps, yet more than he has taken from it; for it is he 
who has spread over its face the dark-grey tint of centuries 
which makes of the old age of architectural monuments 
their season of beauty. 

But who has thrown down the two ranges of statues? 
who has left the niches empty? who has cut in the middle 
of the central portal that new and bastard pointed arch? 
who has dared to hang in it that heavy unmeaning wooden 
gate, carved a la Louis XV, besides the arabesques of Bis- 
comette ? The men, the architects, the artists of our times. 

And — if we enter the interior of the edifice — ^who has 
overturned that colossal St. Christopher, proverbial for his 
magnitude among statues, as the Grand' Salle of the Palais 
was among halls, as the spire of Strasburg among steeples ? 
And those myriads of statues which thronged all the inter- 
eolumniations of the nave and the choir — kneeling, standing, 
equestrian — men, women, children — kings, bishops, warriors 
— in stone, in marble, in gold, in silver, in brass, and even 
in wax — who has brutally swept them out? It is not Time 
that has done it. ' 

And who has substituted for the old Gothic altar, splen- 
didly loaded with shrines and reliquaries, that heavy sarco- 
phagus of marble, with angels' heads and clouds, which 



FRANCE. 265 

looks like an unmatched specimen from the Val-de-Grace 
or the Invalides ! Who has stupidly fixed that heavy anach- 
ronism of stone into the Carlovingian pavement of Her- 
candus? Was it not Louis XIV fulfilling the vow of Louis 
XIII? 

And who has put cold white glass in place of those 
deep-tinctured panes which made the wondering eyes of our 
forefathers hesitate between the round windov/ over the 
grand doorway and the pointed ones of the chancel? And 
what would a sutachanter of the sixteenth century say could 
he see that fine yellow-washing with which the Vandal arch- 
bishops have besmeared their cathedral ? He v/ould remem- 
ber that it was the colour with v/hich the hangman brushed 
over such buildings as were adjudged to be infamous; he 
would recollect the hotel of the Petit-Bourbon, which had 
thus been washed all over yellow for the treason of the 
constable — "yellow, after all, so well mixed," says Sauval, 
"and so well applied, that the lapse of a century and more 
has not yet taken its colour." He would believe that the 
holy place had become infamous^ and would flee away 
from it. 

And then if we ascend the cathedral — not to mention 
a thousand other barbarisms of every kind— what have they 
done with that charming small steeple which rose from the 
intersection of the cross, and which, no less bold and light 
than its neighbour, the spire (destroyed also) of the Sainte- 
Chapeile, pierced into the sky yet farther than the towers 
— perforated, shary, sonorous, airy? An architect de bon 
gout amputated it in 1787, and thought it was sufficient 
to hide the wound with that great plaster of lead which 
resembles the lid of a porridge-pot. 

Thus it is that the wondrous art of the Middle Ages 
has been treated in almost every country, and especially in 
France. In its ruin three sorts of inroads are distinguish- 
able, and haVe made breaches of different depths — first, 
time, which has graually made deficiencies here and there, 
and has gnawed over its whole surface; then religious and 
political revolutions, which, blind and angry in their nature, 
have tumultuously wreaked then- fury upon it, torn its rich 



266 WHIRL AROUND THE WORLD. 

garment of sculpture and carving, burst its rose-shaped win- 
dows, broken its bands of arabesques and miniature figures, 
torn down itsi statues, here for their mitre, there for their 
crown; and lastly, changes of fashion, growing more and 
more grotesque and stupid, which, commencing with the 
anarchical yet splendid deviations of the revival, have suc- 
ceeded one another in the necessary decline of architecture. 
Fashion has done more mischief than revolutions. It has 
cut to the quick — it has attacked the very bone and frame- 
work of the art. It has mangled, dislocated, killed the edifice 
— in its form as well as in its meaning, in its consistency as 
well as in its beauty. And then it has remade, which, at 
least, neither Time nor revolutions had pretended to do. It 
has audaciously fitted into the wounds of Gothic architecture 
its wretched gewgaws of a day — its marble ribands — its 
metal pompoons— a very leprosy of ovolos, volutes, and en- 
tournements, of draperies, garlands, and fringes, of stone 
flames, blazen clouds, fleshy Cupids, and chubby cherubim, 
which we 'find beginning to devour the face of art in the 
oratory of" Catherine de Medicis, and making it expire two 
centuries after, tortured and convulsed, in the boudoir of 
Madame Dubarry. 

" Thus, to sum up the points which we have here laid 
down, three kinds of ravages now disfigure Gothic archi- 
tecture: wrinkles and knobs on the surface — these are the 
work of Time ; violences, brutalities, contusions, fractures — 
these are the work of revolutions, from Luther down to 
Mirabeau; mutilations, amputations, dislocation of mem- 
bers, restorations — these are the labours, Grecian, Roman, 
and barbaric, of the professors according to Vitruvius and 
Vignola. That magnificent art which the Vandals had pro- 
duced the academies have murdered. To the operations of 
ages and of revolutions, which, at all events, devastate with 
impartiality and grandeur, have been added those of the 
cloud of school-trained architects, licensed, privileged, and 
patented, degrading with all the discernment and selection 
of bad taste — substituting, for instance, the chicorees of 
Louis XV for the 'Gothic lace-work, to the greater glory 
of the Parthenon. This is the kick of the ass at the ex- 



FRANCE. 



267 



piring lion. 'Tis the old oak which, in the last , stage of 
decay, is stung and gnawed by the caterpillars.,, 

How remote is all this from the time when Eobert 
Cenalis, comparing Notre-Dame at Paris to the famous 
temple of Diana at Ephesus, "so much vaunted by the an- 
cient pagans," which immortalised Erostratus, thought the 
Gaulish cathedral "more excellent in length, breadth, height 
and structure." 

Notre-Dame, however, as an architectural monument, 
is not one of those which can be called complete, definite, 
belonging to a class. It is not a Eoman church, nor is it a, 
Gothic church. It is not a model of any individual order. 
It has not, like the abbey of Tournus, the solemn and mas- 
sive squareness, the round broad vault, the icy bareness, 
the majestic simplicity, of the edifices which have the cir- 
cular arch for their basis. Nor is it, like the cathedral of 
. Bourges, the magnificent, airy, multiform, tufted, pinnacled, 
florid production of the pointed arch. It cannot be ranked 
among that antique family of churches, gloomy, mysterious, 
lowering, crushed, as it were, by the weight of the circular 
arch — almost Egyptian, even to their ceilings — all hierogly- 
phical, all sacerdotal, all symbolical — more abounding i:i 
their ornaments with lozenges and zigzags than with flowers 
— with flowers than with animals, with animals than with 
human figures — the work not sp much of the architect as 
of the bishop — the first transformation of the art — all 
stamped with theocratical and military discipline — having 
its root in the Lower Empire, and stopping at the time of 
William the Conqueror. Nor can this cathedral be ranked 
in that other family of lofty, airy churches, rich in sculp- 
ture and painted windows, of pointed forms and bold dis- 
position — as political symbols, communal and citizen — as 
works of art, free, capricious, licentious — ^the second hiero- 
glyphical, immutable, and sacerdotal, but artistical, pro- 
gressive, and popular — beginning at the return from the 
crusades and ending with Louis XI. Notre-Dame, then, is 
not of purely Roman race like the former, nor of purely 
Arabic race like the latter. 

'Tis an edifice of the transition. The Saxon architect 



268 V/HIRL AROUND THE WORLD. 

was just finishing off the first pillars of the nave when the 
pointed arch, arriving from the crusade, came and seated 
itself as a conqueror upon the broad Roman capitals which 
had been designed to support only circular arches. The 
pointed arch, thenceforward master of the field, constructed 
, thi' remainder of the building. However, inexperienced and 
timid at its commencement, we find it widening its com- 
pass, and, as it were, restraining itself, as not yet daring 
to spring up into arrows and lancets, as it afterwards did 
in so many wonderful cathedrals. It might be said to have 
been sensible of the neighbourhood of the heavy Roman 
pillars. 

Hov/ever, these edifices of the transition from the 
Roman to the Gothic are not less valuable studies than the 
pure models are. They express a gradation of the art which 
would be lost without them. It is the pointed species en- 
grafted v'jon the circular. 

Notre-Dame, in particular, is a curious specimen of 
this variety. ' Each face, each stone, of this venerable monu- 
ment, is a page of the history, not only of the country, but 
of the science and the art. Thus, to point out here only 
some of the principal details, v/hile the sm-all Porte-Rouge 
attains almost to the limits of the Gothic delicacy of the 
fifteenth century, the pillars of the nave, in their amplitu-ie 
and solemnity, go back almost as far as the Cai-'lovingian 
abbey of St. Germ.ain-des-Pres. One would think there v/ere 
tix centuries between that door and those pillars. Not even 
the herrnetics fail to find, in the emblematical devices of the 
great portal, a satisfactory compendium of their science, of 
which the church of St. Jacques-de-la-Boucherie was so 
complete a hieroglyphic. Thus the Roman abbey — the her- 
metical church — Gothic art — Saxon art — the heavy round 
pillar, which carries us back to Gregory VII — the hermetical 
symbolism by which Nicolas Flamel anticipated Luther — 
papal unity, and seism — St. Germain-des-Pres and St. Jac- 
ques-de-la-Boucherie — all are mingled, combined, and amal- 
gamated in Notre-Dame. This central and maternal church 
is, among the other old churches of Paris, a sort of chimera ; 



FRANCE. 



269 



she has the head of one, the limbs of another, the back of 
a third — something of every one. 

We repeat it, these compound fabrics are not the least 
interesting to the artist, the antiquary, and the historian. 
They make us feel in how great a degree architecture is a 
primitive matter — demonstrating (as the Cyclopean ves- 
tiges, the Egyptian pyramids, and the gigantic Hindu 
pagods likewise demonstrate) that the greatest productions 
of architecture are not so much the work of individuals as 
of society — the offspring rather of national efforts than of 
the conceptions of particular minds — a deposit left by a 
whole people — the accumulation of ages — the residue of the 
successive evaporations of human society — in short, a sort 
of formations. Each wave of time leaves its alluvion ; each 
race deposits its stratum upon the monument; each indivi- 
dual contributes his stone. So do the beavers— so do the 
bees — ^so does man. The great symbol of Architecture, 
Babel, is a hive. 

Great edifices, like great mountains, are the work of 
ages. Often the art undergoes a transformation while they 
are yet pending — pendent opera interrupta — they go on 
again quietly, in accordance with the change in the art. The 
altered art takes up the fabric, incrusts itself upon it, as- 
similates it to itself, develops it after its own fashion, and 
finishes it if it can. The thing is accomplished without dis- 
turbance, without effort, without reaction, according to a 
law natural and tranquil. It is a graft that shoots out, a 
sap that circulates, a vegetation that goes forward. Cer- 
tainly there is matter for very large volumes, and often for 
the universal history of human nature, in those successive 
engraf tings of several species of art at different elevation's 
upon the same fabric. The man, the artist, the individual, 
are lost, and disappear upon those great masses, leaving no 
name of an author behind. Human nature is there to be 
traced only in its aggregate. Time is the architect, the na- 
tion is the builder. 

To consider in this placfe^'^idiy 'the architecture of Chris- 
tian Europe, that younger sister of the great masonries of 
the East— it presents to us aii immense for niatidhi divided 



270 WHIRL AROUND THE WORLD. 

into three, superincumbent zones clearly defined : the Roman 
zone ; the Gothic zone ; and the zone of the Revival, which 
we would willingly entitle the Greco-Roman. The .Roman 
stratum, the m.ost ancient and the deepest, is occupied by 
the circular arch ; which reappears, rising from the Grecian 
column, in the modern and upper stratum of the Revival. 
The pointed arch is found between the two. The edifices 
which belong to one or other of these three strata exclu- 
sively, are perfectly distinct, uniform, and complete. Such 
is the abbey of Jumieges ; such is the cathedral of Rheims ; 
such is the church of Sainte-Croix at Orleans. But the three 
zones mingle and combine at their borders, like the colours 
of the prism. And hence the complex fabrics — the edifices 
of gradation and transition. One is Roman in its feet, 
Gothic in the middle, and Greco-Roman in the head. This 
is when it has taken six hundred years to build it. This 
variety is rare: the donjon tower of Etampes is a specimen 
of it. But the fabrics of two formations are more frequent. 
Such is the Notre-Dame of Paris, an edifice of the pointed 
arch, which, in its earliest pillars, dips into that Roman 
zone in which the portal of St. Denis and the nave of St. 
Germain-des-Pres are entirely immersed. Such is the 
charming semi-Gothic chapter-house of Bocherville, which 
the Roman layer mounts halfway up. Such is the cathedral 
of Rouen, which v/ould have been entirely Gothic, had not 
the extremity of its central spire pierced into the zone of 
the Revival. 

However, all these gradations, all these differences, af- 
fect only the surface of the structures. It is only the art 
that has changed its coat : the conf orm.ation of the Christian 
temple itself has remained untouched. It is ever the same 
Internal framework, the same logical disposition of parts. 
Whatever be the sculptured and decorated envelope of a 
cathedral, we constantly find underneath it at least the germ 
and rudiment of the Roman basilic. It eternally develops 
itself upon the ground according to the same law. There 
are invariably two liaves crossing each other at right angles, 
the upper extremity of which cross is rounded into a chan- 
cel: there are constantly two low sides for the internal 



EFANCE. 



271 



processions and for the chapels — a sort of lateral ambula- 
tories communicating with the principal nave by the inter- 
columniations. This being once laid down, the number of 
the chapels, of the doorways, of the- steeples, of the spires, 
is variable to infinity, according to the fancy of the age, of 
the nation, of the art. The performance of the worship be- 
ing once provided for and ensured, Architecture is at liberty 
to do what she pleases. Statues, painted glass, rose-shaped 
windows, arabesques, indentations, capitals, and bas-reliefs 
— all these objects of imagination she combines in such ar- 
rangement as best suits her. Hence the prodigious external 
variety of these edifices, in the main structure of which 
dwells so much order and uniformity. The trunk of the 
tree is unchanging, the vegetation is capricious. 

Beautiful description, isn't it, of this one religious offer- 
ing out of hundreds that have risen all thru France and 
adorn her surface of green from sea to sea, and from bay 
to mountains; in dollars and cents, what must the erection 
of these huge piles of masonry with their "treasures" be 
valued at; at every place you visit, you are v/hisked off to 
one of the big dark solemn, and stately edifices of "Our 
Lady" ; these are the Frenchmen's sanctuary, their ideal. 

In the north of the city is the Mont Martre, a rising 
knob around which centers the lively part of Parisian life; 
the place is called Moulin Rouge, or red mill — "rouge" is 
red — here the gaiety awaits no one. 

The most interest is in the west and northwest of 
Paris; here are the big drygoods emporiums, the Galeries 
Lafayette and the Marchand and many other big establish- 
ments dealing in fine goods, along the Rue de la Paix and 
Boulevards Italiens and Haussman, centering around the 
fine big opera building where is a wide open place and safety 
zone from the traffic of the converging streets, and here are 
the central stations for taking the undergrounds by enter- 
ing the little dark coops on the walks and dropping down 
the chutes to the big oval-topt stations under ground, step- 
ping in the coach, and shoot along under the city as in a 
shuttle ; busses and cabs and hurrying pedestrians are thick, 
for this is the busy part of the city. 



272 



WHIRL AROUND THE WORLD. 



One feautre I noted at these big drygoods establish- 
ments, is the penchant for displaying their goods out on 
the sidewalks ; out under awnings and shade trees surround- 
ing all sides of the store, it seems their whole stock is out- 
side, muslins piled high on racks and tables, clothing, shawls,, 
for the French peasants still wear the old fashioned shawls, 
and tall show cases full of artificial flowers and others of 
ribbons — in fact, there's a complete stock all round the out- 
side where the shoppers walk around buying and having it 
measured off right there on the walk; I entertained myself 
many times watching the purchasing natives, negotiating 
in their high nasal language rapidly unwound. 

Inside, Americans are given a nice little guide book of 
the store in English with pencil, and all are very courteous. 

Along these busy streets, the hotels and restaurants 
have their outdoor restaurants, and this is the custom all 
over Paris; ilttle tables and chairs sitting as many as four 
abreast, or as many as the walk will accommodate, occupy 
the complete sidewalk, where you are served and can watch 
the excitement of the street traffic and the constant stream 
of passers-by, while appeasing your hunger; these outdoor 
restaurants, especially in the evehings are drawing, and 
are well patronized, , and are popular as they are safe as 
Paris is a clean city and not subject to Missouri whirlwinds, 
which would come along at the most inopportune time and 
pepper your refreshments with one swoop of the street 
dust, or deluge it with an outburst of cloudburst. 

If you v/ish to see emblazonry in the highest art, go 
to the opera house after night ; besides the artistic structure 
of the facade and the great crowning dome with all its 
statuary pertaining to musical art surmounting the eaves 
of the exterior, when once inside, the foyer, with all its 
richly gilded columns and mural paintings, with red velvet 
hangings, and display of extravagance in chandeliers all 
gilded, beaming and glittering, you pass up the very grand 
and spread eagle stairway, or escalier, all embellished with 
electricity and statues, where between acts, the fashionables 
come out and .prqmen,ade and meet socially in the foyer 



RFANCE.' 



273 



and pose along the grand staircase, which gives a splendid 
effect to their shimmering gowns and glittering tiaras. 

I joined a couple of young American tourists and we 
went one night to hear the grand opera "Rigoletto" by Hugo, 
with music by Verdi; of course, it was all in French, but 
I had read the play in English heretofore, and followed the 
scenes finely; we sat in a loge, as they are called, six to a 
compartment, and these stalls reach clear to the top all 
round the interior, as there are no balconies projecting over 
the main floor. 

Over the Seine and to the southwest of the city is 
where the Paris Exposition was held some years ago ; here 
is the great steel mast that was erected at that time, the 
Eiffel Tower, which rises up above the city at a height of 
almost one thousand feet, the highest artificial structure 
in the world; there are four platforms or landing places at 
different heights up the tov/er where an elevator takes you 
to the extreme top for a panorama of the city, with a tariff 
of one franc for each landing; the big exposition hall, the 
Trocadero, is now turned into a museum and a fine restau- 
rant; adjoining the Eiffel Tower is the exquisitely paneled- 
off Pare Champ de Mars, which is a rendezvous or promen- 
ade for the military students who attend the military ecole 
(school) near, which is a long series of buildings with a 
great stretch of parade grounds attached. 

I drove thru the city by carriage several times, as you 
have a more leisure observation than being hurried along 
at cab speed where the general view flits past at the rate 
of a movie film. 

There are so many statues planted along heralding 
France's history; there are Napoleons and Joan of Arcs 
all over Paris, and France too for that matter, the hand- 
some statues of Joan of Arc, especially those of her in 
white and gold mounted, are a beautfiul tribute and bears 
out the esteem she is being held in, thru all these long years 
since 1429 when she saved the day for France from the 
siege of England, and who later, on conspiracy, became a 
martvr — -being burned at the stake at Ruen, the town on 



274 WHIRL AROUND THE WORLD. 

the Seine between Paris and the sea, and her ashes thrown 
into the Seine. 

In the eghse (church) of St. Denis is a statue of her 
in complete armor, and frank and brave is her countenance 
depicted as she holds her sacred banner to her side; history 
has this Maid of Orleans a war heroine while yet in her 
teens; born in the little village of Domremy, about a hun- 
dred miles sout'hwest of Verdun over near the mountainous 
border of the Voges on the east frontier of France, she 
studied the woes of her country, where England was making 
great inroads in the work of conquering France, the English 
king, Henry VI, being proclaimed King of France ^t Paris, 
whereas Charles VII, King of France's southern provinces 
had almost abandoned the struggle as hopeless when this 
maid, Joan of Arc, appeared, and as if by a miracle turned 
the table of affairs and the struggle ended wtih the dis- 
possessing the English of all French acquirements except 
Calais. 

This fearless maid gathered an army of ten thousand 
men and marched td the English entrenchments, forcing 
their vacating, and leading her French King to Rheims to 
be crowned, where at the coronation she stood at his side; 
continuing in the war into the next year, she was taken 
prisoner by the Burgundians then at variance, and sold to 
the English where she was taken to Rouen and after a long 
trial was condemned to death, the church intervening she 
was commuted to imprisonment for life, and later, on pre- 
text, she was burned at the stake, which, it is handed down, 
she bore with great fortitude — so that is why these ex- 
amplary fac similes of Joan of Arc are conspicuous and 
praised in France today. 

On going out to Versailles, pronounced "Ver-sa-ye" 
over here, about eleven miles from Paris, the country is 
most beautiful, cool, green and inviting with fine wide roads, 
, where villas, both great and unpretentious are hidden over 
behind high walls of shrubbery and hedges almost smother- 
ing out one's view, fine forests are along the way and the 
drive was full of interest as we came upon the quiet little 
town of Versailles moving on its every day life as prosaic- 



RFANCE. 



275 



ally as tho its vicinity had never been the embryo of a 
Revolution ; up on an isolated elevation, and overlooking the 
town is the chief attraction — the Chateau, or Grand Palais, 
erected at a fabulous cost, where the kings of France have 
made their homes, each succeeding one adding to the pala- 
tial chateau as their extravagance heightened, until the end 
came with the before mentioned King Louis XVI and Queen 
Marie Antoinette when Paris women and men marched un- 
der their banner "to Versailles" going into the court yard 
entrance which is a great paved plaza, the place where the 
royal pair was taken prisoners on October 6, 1789, and 
hurried off to Paris. 

After picturing to myself how crestfallen such a scene 
might have appeared, I, with others bent on the same mis- 
sion, started exploring the rambling old palace which just 
wanders on and on, breaking into long halls at every turn 
just for a continuation; I'm sure that the insurrection of 
the French women was justified — did they ever get a 
glimpse of the far flung extravagance embodied in this 
handsome Palais of Versailles. 

We observed the richly decorated Chapelle, built in 
among the halls, with superb columns reaching thru two 
stories to the hand-painted ceiling, this private chapel 
which accommodates only a few seats or benches, as they 
appear, is where the royal family worshipt, and is just as 
King Louis XVI left it when his royal highness and Marie 
Antoinette quitted Versailles at the hands of the angry 
mob ; opening into a vast hall, we wandered thru a maze of 
great pictures of famous battles, where in this long gallery 
of four hundred feet, there are thirty-three of these over- 
sized paintings covering every available inch of wall space, 
with just a few benches for convenience being the only 
objects, as this palace is not occupied now only as a museum 
and preservative for these one-time moneyed outlays, and 
there is an inscription near that reads "To All the Glories 
of France"; but if these extraordinary ideas had never 
been produced or developed, we would not now have the 
wonderful outcomes to marvel over ; the next hall is a series 
of highly embellished arches with all glass sides, just simply 



276 WHIRL AROUND THE WORLD. 

a glass arcade, and called Galerie des Glaces, where you 
look thru to the fine rolling garden display below ; in this 
arcade, William I was piioclaimed Emperor of Germany in 
1871, just after the Franco-German war. 

We went up the handsome marble stairway with its 
wide low steps winding in prolonged sections to the first 
iloor, where the "Queen's Staircase" took the lead to the 
second floor; here is the royal bedroom of the kingly period 
with stead of golden head and footboards and canopy, with 
red velvet drapery, and gold framed pictures and portraits 
along the lavishly decorated walls; this is all preserved as 
it was left, and is guarded by a railing, where we pass thru 
admiring the gorgeousness — just as we do Washington's 
home in Mount Vernon on the Potomac of about the same 
period, only the "gorgeousness" is absent in this grand old 
Colonial embodiment. 

Napoleon and Josephine resided at this palace of Ver- 
sailles for a time, and on passing thru the different private 
r....)ms, we were attracted by the massive bedstead in Napo- 
leon's room, which is of wood with gold inlay and the rich 
old coverings. 

The grounds lead down a slope which certainly are the 
most picturesque gardens in the world, and today the up- 
keep of which must require large sums; just simply a 
dream of magnificence, as v/e stood at the higher point and 
looked down over the succession of one fountain after an- 
other — it was Sunday afternoon, at which time all the 
water is turned on for a few hours only, during the summer 
months, (possibly it was continuous during the king's reign, 
whose .fancy was to be pleased), and the whole slope was 
all a bubble with the spurting waters, each seeming 
to leap higher than the other, one large piece worked out 
is called the Combat of the Animals, in which there is a 
storm of water shooting every way deluging the animals 
assembled; there are parterres (flower gardens) worked 
out in glowing colors surrounding the main basins, which 
are all overflowing, v>^ith white statues gleaming everywhere 
from the green background, which are just little groves or 
thickets, with fountains playing even between these, almost 



RP^ANCE. 



277 



hidden, save from a view from the parapet of the court; 
to say that it all certainly is spectacular in its gorgeousness, 
would be very light for this grand outlay of time, patience 
and finance; the Orangerie is an original feature where 
miriads of well f orm.ed orange trees, each one set in its own 
box, and trimmed fancifully, adorn a plaza, and the build- 
ing contains over a thousand orange trees, where it is said, 
the oldest tree is near five hundred years old; farther on 
is the Grand Canal, artificial, for, not having started l:his 
palace on a body of water, the water was brot to it, so this 
canal was built near two hundred feet wide and almost a 
mile long, and it is here on this beautiful stretch of canal 
that King Louis XIV, the first of the trio of asthetic kings 
entertained with his Venetian festivals, which have become 
famous in history; so this is Versailles when the Grandes 
Eaux (grand waters) play, which is generally announced in 
the Paris papers, and all Paris comes, as it is just a fine 
drive, or autom_obile spin, being only eleven miles out. 

In quitting Paris, I took the train at Gare St. Lazarre 
going across Normandy thru northern France, vv^hich is the 
province just v/est of the province of Picardy, to Cher- 
bourg, tv\^o hundred miles from Paris. 

This seaport that stands out on the tip end of a narrow 
peninsula that reaches out into the English Channel is the 
first military port in France, and with the docks and har- 
bour traffic, the town is quite industrious, having a popula- 
tion of 42,000. 

There is a line of seven fortifications, and a big floating 
dock that can accommodate seventeen vessels, everything 
being here for building and fitting out ships of war, and 
ctanding out in the harbour is a great artificial breakwater, 
called the Digue, which is a solid masonry bar three-fourths 
of a mile long built out in water that is over forty feet 
deep ; this Digue, or mole has a great fort built in its center 
and a lighthouse marks its whereabouts in the sea at night. 
Large passenger liners cannot dock in this harbour, 
and as I was going to meet the largest one in the world I 
had to take a tender from this port and go out to the deep 
sea to meet the "Imperator," the big beautiful ship that is 



278 WHIRL AROUND THE WORLD. 

the last word in ocean greyhounds; steaming across the 
harbour, there was the majestic ship looming up in the 
inkiness of night, looking like a great hotel with lights 
streaming from the portholes, and as our pygmy tender 
drew up by the side of the big iron sides, music floated 
out over the waters, a mighty pretty picture, this richly 
equipt liner, over nine hundred feet long anchored on the 
breast of the dark sea, with a tiny tender at side adding 
to the big ship's tonnage, many Parisian passengers, who 
had come on the same special train to the end of the French 
peninsula to meet this steamer to cross the Atlantic to 
New York, for this big liner plies only between New York 
and Hamburg, calling at Southampton for London tourists 
and at Cherbourg for Paris visitors. 



279 



ON THE ATLANTIC. 



Altho there are numerous ships crossing the Atlantic 
at all times, I availed myself of the opportunity of selecting 
the Imperator, simply because it is the largest marine con- 
struction in the world, and as I had been accorded all the 
great things around the world, I wished to travel on an 
ocean palace which had reached the climax of perfection. 

This was the Imperator's second trip, just having re- 
turned from its initiation trip; as were others, so was I, 
a little skeptical about crossing on its maiden trip as the 
disaster of the Titanic by ramming a huge iceberg and 
sinking in the Atlantic on her maiden trip, while making a 
record run, the year before, was still fresh in my memory, 
so I lingered over, in Paris to await her second voyage. 

There is a liner building now, by the same company, 
as the sister ship to the Imperator, christened the "Vater- 
land," which will be some larger than this one, being thirty 
feet longer, so we must appreciate the efforts of progress 
in this, one of the greatest achievements in the world today. 

We all climbed up the long line of steps let down the 
big iron sides, and reached the reception hall where the 
ship's personnel, officers, staff and stewards in blue uniform 
gave us a cordial greeting, and there was a hurrying of 
each voyager, escorted by the steward who has the care- 
taking of the one's particular apartment, to locate his 
berth; then we set to, to explore the ship, as there is no 
night on a steamer, especially in the balmy summer on 
the sea, and this ship is electric lighted from fore to aft 
with the extreme number of ten thousand lights. 

I was certainly amazed at the spaciousness of every 
part of the ship, the rooms are not the narrow cells usually 
found on the smaller vessels, with three berths, one above 



280 WHIRL AROUND THE WORLD. 

the other, built against the walls, they are, and mine is, a 
real room with two real beds of the half size, the posts 
playing in little metal discs which are screwed to the floor, 
insuring safety from the ship's motion in storm; seven 
electric lights illumine my room, which I share with an 
American returning from a year in Italy, and renewing 
acquaintances with many from our "World Cruise" on the 
'"Cleveland," who had embarked on this ship from London, 
I enjoyed every hour of the six days it requires to cross the 
Atlantic. 

But uppermost v/as the luxuriousness of this leviathan 
of the ocean, and I never stopt reveling in the interest it 
acorded; since travel has becom.e so universal between the 
United States and Europe, the steamship companies are 
vieing with each other in the accommodations and magni- 
ficence and social advantages of their ships, in catering for 
precedence in the Trans-Atlantic service, and I was for- 
tunate in getting to make a voyage on this, the latest prod- 
uct of sea craft, else I should never have known to what ex- 
treme dimensions and appointments floating craft could be 
carried. 

In reviewing the launching of this new type of vessel 
from the docks where it was built, into the river Elbe, it 
says that "'slowly at first, and then with increasing speed, 
it slipt down the ways into the water; waves of tidal di- 
mensions followed this cleaving of the waters, in which the 
vessel rose and fell excitingly for several seconds, and then 
gradually steadied itself and floated majestically on the 
bosom of the water." 

It must have been a grand sight. 

I have never been fortunate enuf to witness even the 
launching of a rowboat. 

This ship was built to carry five thousand passengers, 
and the officiating crev/ numbers eleven hundred extra, con- 
sisting of stokers in the hold, engineers, on whom v/e must 
needs depend, as they toil in the hot engine rooms down 
in the dark bottom of the ship four decks below water, for 
this ship is nine decks high and five of them are above 



ON THE ATLANTIC. 281 

water; air is pumped down to them thru the ventilation 
funnels on top, v/hich stand all around on the top deck amid 
the life-boats, life-rafts, and the three big sm.okestacks 
which are as large as our country silos ; then there are the 
first, second and third officers, two captains and the com- 
mander, besides a host of stewards to put your room in 
order daily, stewardesses to administer to your wants, 
chefs, waiters, deck-hands, for it takes continuous work to 
administer to this floating city of four thousand peoples, 
which we have on board this trip (not counting the crew), 
who sit around leisurely in the deck chairs, whiling the 
days away as we skim over the surface. 

The Social hall, which is the meeting place for all so- 
cially inclined, is a mammoth sized room, with a stage for 
theatrical entertainments, and is a finely appointed room 
in upholstered Circassian walnut with rich old-rose furnish- 
ings; the huge rose brocade carpet is rolled up when a ball 
is given each alternate evening, allowing use of the polished 
floor; not a light is visible in this hall as they are all sec- 
reted above, where their softness is reflected from a frosted 
dome. 

The great French windows are shadowed by rose vel- 
vet drapery over cream net, and the unique chairs are bulg- 
ing with the overstuft rose brocade; the big dining room 
has a mezzanine, or balcony surrounding the main floor, 
where dining and looking down on the lower partakers, 
flooded in the lights, is a pretty picture — and what a wealth 
of stuff to devour, everything from everywhere that could 
appease a food longing. 

On this deck is a Ritz-Carleton restaurant and winter 
garden which is a "study in palms"; one evening the rem- 
nants of the "Cleveland" round the world cruise gave a 
farewell supper at the pretty Ritz-Carleton, just as a social 
parting and reviewing of our trip as globe trotters by im- 
promptu speeches; there were forty-five of us, and the 
table decorations were very beautiful, where v/e had nine 
courss servd. 

This ship sports an original feature in the way of a 
Roman bath with sea water, where we went in bathing of 



282 WHIRL AROUND THE WORLD. 

mornings, I having my own bathing suit along with me, 
for no one travels now-a-days without one ; this great Roman 
bath is 65x41 feet and extends thru two ceilings; imagine 
a room as big as a barn, devoted to swimming, on a ship; 
the pool's deepest point is seven feet, and the salt sea water 
is rushed in over cascades at one end where there is a 
Roman fountain; eighteen Pompeiian pillars support the 
decks and there are marble benches, on the Pompeiian style 
around the rim for the swimmers, while above is a gallery 
for visitors who like to watch the antics of the bathers. 

On board also, is a gymnasium, a physician's office and 
apothecary, a book store and a florist's shop; just a well 
equipt city, with telefone in your room where you can tg^lk 
with your friend several blocks away. 

There are four classes provided for on this liner — 
first, second, third and steerage, with life-boats assured for 
all, where on going to the top deck you look with rather a 
deathly glance, than a "life saving" one on the dozens of 
life-boats in their cradles sitting regularly along on the 
edge of the high deck with their canvas covers buttoned 
down tightly over the tops along the' cork rims, all sus- 
pended from the davits on pulleys, ready to swing out over 
the sides at the first cry of alarm. 

All about, this great steel construction is immaculately 
white, with decks freshly scrubbed with sandstone; the 
feroad promenades around the decks instead of being left 
to the elements as formerly, are all glass enclosed which 
you can raise to shut out a chilling blast, or lower to admit 
of a balmy sea breeze; tea and wafers or sandwiches are 
served out on these promendes in mid-afternoons, and we 
had a wireless news sheet printd every morning which was 
past along the decks to each passenger, so we got the latest 
happenings, away out in midocean. 

The Atlantic was docile all the way over, only the fog 
excluded our view for most the whole of three days — it 
simply swooped down on us completely enveloping us, and 
our ship moved very slowly and cautiously while it was so 
dense, tooting a continuous low "moo" from its fog horn. 



ON THE ATLANTIC. 283 

for we could not see even the fore nor the aft of our ship, 
and danger of collision was imminent. 

I made a trip down on the second-class accommoda- 
tions, and while they are commendable, I would rather have 
the poorest room on first-class decks than the best on the 
second, as you have all the other advantages of the first- 
class passengers, socially. From the second-class decks I 
could see the steerage passengers down and out on the deck 
below; they looked like little scared bunches as they settled 
around in groups among the machinery and big capstans 
and piles of ropes and chains, with shawls on their heads 
and pillow bundles and queer baggage, where they had come 
out for a little sea breeze, men, women, girls and children, 
in the most primitive state of experience, coming over here 
to cast their lot with us; coming to the free country that 
they have heard so much about; little do they dream of 
what might beset them, and what pitfalls, sorry to say, 
might await them in the struggle to become Americanized. 

There is a nurse at the Immigrant hospital on Ellis 
Isle that says she frequently has these immigrants from 
foreign countries in her charge, and that they show de- 
mentedness, and are difficult to control, some cases due to 
sea sickness, others to fright from the ordeal they are sub- 
jected to in examinations proving them fit subjects to land 
and become our fellow citizens — for not quite all are ad- 
mitted who apply at our gates. 

True we have vast plains awaiting settlenbent and 
great scopes of desert needing irrigation, but these immi- 
grants lack experience and the means, consequently they 
rather huddle to the larger cities. 



284 



NEW YORK. 



At last, having covered the last lap of my tour — the 
three thousand miles across the Atlantic, on nearing New 
York, I began to realize my seven months' scrutiny of the 
world is drawing to a close, and I must say the sailing of 
the seven seas has been the most appealing feature of all 
the beautiful pleasures afforded, I think I have seen the sea 
in all its stages from subimssiveness to waves, to surging, 
to stormy to the frenzied water-spout, and in all the colors 
that the sea is subject to, for it doesn't confine itself wholly 
to the "deep blue," and now rounding out Coney Island, the 
world-famous bathing resort on Long Island, where I have 
gone in splashing many times, and which is now all a 
glitter with its miriads of electric lights, as it is darkening 
and the illumination meets us far out on the water, lighting 
up the sea around. 

We steamed in thru the narrows, into New York Bay, 
and, my, what a breastwork of skyscrappers met us, great 
towering, pinnacled and spired structures, presumably alive 
with American animation. 

But we seemed almost as majestic as we swept in be- 
tween these tall buildings on either side of the Hudson, 
where a tug came down to meet us, escorting our ship to 
its docks in Hoboken. 

Coming down the steps of the big Imperator with the 
throngs, we each took our places in the Custom House under 
our respective initials, where we had to wait until our bag- 
gage was delivered from the ship's hold to our department, 
and was inspected, and the floors, and in fact, the whole 
long hall presented the appearance of a salvage sale, so 
scattered bout were fine clothes that had been purchased 



NEW YORK. 285 

over in Paris and London, and the inspectors looking them 
over and passing on to the next, leaving them turned topsy- 
turvy ; you can't make them believe your collection is within 
the limit, you must untie every box or they will for you. 

Staying in Hoboken that night, for it was late, next 
morning I took a last look at the big steamer towering 
above its docks, and taking the tunnel I darted under the 
Hudson River and came out in New York, where for a few 
days I stopt over, to see the busy city, where I noted the 
street traffic was taken care of by three different systems, 
the subway, which threads the ground under the city, the 
street cars which shuttle along the surface and the ele- 
vated which is all trestle construction with three coaches 
together trailing along on top high above the street, run- 
ning right by your bedroom window a story and more above 
the street. 

I would go out on one system and back on another, or 
even by boat, as these make connection with Brooklyn and 
Coney Island; I went in bathing, then up to Brighton and 
Manhattan beaches, and it seemed whole New York was out 
in the surf, splashing and taking sand baths; then I went 
in a small boat out to the Statue of Liberty where the great 
bronze Goddess stands on a big stone pedestal 225 feet high, 
isolated in the bay, holding a torch in her hand which 
flashes warning to sailors at night; I walked clear to the 
top where I stood in the crown she wears on her head which ' 
has windows in it where you have a faraway view, and 
where forty-five persons can stand at one time. 

1 went over to Ellis Isle many times just to see the 
different peoples that come over to find a home in America ; 
I met a nurse from the hospital and I came and went when 
I pleased, crossing on the ferry to the little island where 
there is only the hospital a big brick building and the de- 
tention house, or quarantine, which we went thru; there 
were many rooms and the immigrants would be standing 
before the judges taking examination, to test their eligi- 
bility for acceptance into our country; sometimes a whole 
family would be waiting to receive their sentence, whether 
admittance or rejection ; on passing thru the numerous halls, 



236 WHIRL AROUND THE WORLD. 

one poor Greek woman was wailing loudly because one of 
her sons was to be deported owing to same affection. 

We went thru the dining room where long tables were 
set for hundreds to eat at one time, for I think this quar- 
antine is never free from subjects, as there are big liners 
putting into port every day or so ; then we slipt thru to 
the court where were hundreds huddled who looked the 
lowest specimens of humanity, defective eyes, crippled, 
lame, no countenance, simple, and silly; these were in all 
probability to be deported. 

After a few days I went down to Asbury Park, as I 
had been to all the beaches on the eastern coast except 
this one; the surf is fine, also the long board walk which 
outlines the beach, tho not on such large proportions as 
that of Atlantic City, whose promenade is eight miles long 
now, running parallel to the beach where everybody con- 
gregates to meet everyone else, and at all hours of the 
day, and certainly making a pretty picture by night. 

After a plunge or two and a turn around the town 
which is made up mostly of beach residences, I took the 
boat back to New York, gathering my luggage together 
and starting for home, stopping at Indianapolis for a few 
days and at St. Louis a short time, then finally landing at 
my home in the little village of Excelsior, in Morgan County, 
on the tip end of the Ozarks, in Missouri. 

People have frequently asked me wfiat part of the 
world, or what country I liked best, but as each nation has 
its own peculiarities, and each one featuring different in- 
terests, some far different from the others, that it would 
be difficult to determine which appeals to me the more. 

I only hope that I may visit all of these countries 
again. 



I 



